Sentencing hearing begins for 2 paramedics found guilty in death of Hamilton teen Yosif Al-Hasnaw

A two-day sentencing hearing commences Monday for two paramedics who were found guilty for their part in the 2017 death of 19-year-old Yosif Al-Hasnawi of Hamilton.

In June, an Ontario Superior Court judge found Steven Snively, 55, and Christopher Marchant, 32, guilty of failing to provide the necessaries of life to Al-Hasnawi.

Al-Hasnawi was shot on Dec. 2, 2017, outside a mosque with one of his brothers and others. He later died in hospital. The shooting happened after he intervened when he saw two people accost an older man.

Snively and Marchant — the paramedics who attended the scene — testified in their trial that they believed Al-Hasnawi was shot with a BB gun. But they were wrong — it was a .22-calibre handgun, and the teenager died from internal bleeding about one hour later. Dale King, who shot Al-Hasnawi, was acquitted last year of second-degree murder in a decision now under appeal.

In the case involving Snively and Marchant, Justice Harrison Arrell ruled there was a "marked departure" from how a properly trained paramedic would have responded. 

The paramedics didn't identify the wound was a penetrating one, and participated in dangerous lifts to move Al-Hasnawi from the sidewalk, Arrell said.

Snively and Marchant also delayed leaving the scene down the street from the mosque in Hamilton's lower city.

The paramedics spent 23 minutes on scene that night; 17 of those minutes were in the back of the ambulance.

Arrell said the wait was "unjustified" and it was foreseeable the paramedics were risking Al-Hasnawi's life.

Crown attorneys Scott Patterson and Linda Shin had argued the paramedics ignored their training and departed from provincial standards. In closing arguments, they called the medical care the pair provided "grossly negligent."

But the defence said the paramedics were following unconscious biases that night, which led them astray in treating Al-Hasnawi. 

They also said that while some of the paramedics' actions may have been mistakes, it didn't necessarily mean they were criminally responsible.

Snively and Marchant testified on their own behalf and said they thought Al-Hasnawi was experiencing a psychiatric emergency. 

Arrell presided over the judge-alone trial, which started in November, 2020.