It’s no secret, and even far from it. Top5 is back in the streets after being incarcerated for nearly three years. A case that had more holes in it than swiss cheese had proven, presumably, to be faulty. We’ll never know, but what we can do is analyze the situation. See the ups and downs and the rights and wrong in the case. Since his release, Top5 has lived life to the fullest, stomping his feet through K Money’s old neighborhood, appearing on an Adin Ross livestream featuring Akademiks and being handed down 200,000$ cash money in a designer bag by fellow GGGs.
Promising to unite the streets while locked up, it seems that Top5 had forgotten the words he spoke while incarcerated, reigniting the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef. Let’s remember Top5 had posted stories on Instagram 5 months prior, claiming Drake hadn’t done ‘shit’ for the streets of Toronto. Quickly backtracking on this statement. Of course, there is a reason why he’s loyal to the multi-million dollar popstar, who wouldn’t be loyal to a friend who played a huge part in your freedom? This article will cover the case which put the man behind bars, his freedom and the actions since.
A Murder In Falstaff
Hashim Omar Hashi had gone out to dinner with a few friends on the night of January 31st, 2021, recalls Detective Sergeant Ted Lioumanis. After dinner, he headed home to his North York apartment located on Falstaff Avenue, more precisely, 40 Falstaff Avenue. He was alone and seemed to have his guard down that evening, or maybe he had no reason to keep his guard up, as his family described the 20-year-old man as a “Kind, humble and hard-working man”.
Shortly before 9pm that evening, Hashi had arrived at his humble abode, as he was rolling up to the entrance of the underground parking lot. Located right next to the massive apartment building, he whipped out his key fob and was about to scan it which is when his life would ultimately end in the following seconds. A black Honda Civic had rolled up behind him, when a suspect darted out of the passenger side with a pistol. The assailant had ran up to the passenger side window of Hashi’s SUV and started unloading gunshots in his direction. 14 shots were fired in total. The suspect then sprinted back to the passenger seat of the Civic before the sedan sped off.
The Honda Civic in question was last captured on video at 8:58pm on highway 401 and Keele Street. The vehicle was later found torched in Earl Bales Park, near the intersection of Bathurst Street & Sheppard Avenue. The Civic was reported stolen several weeks before the crime had taken place. Authorities failed to extract any DNA from the vehicle that could be used to identify the suspects. Emergency services had arrived at the scene of the crime shortly before 9pm finding Hashi suffering from numerous gunshot wounds. Hashim Omar Hashi was declared dead at the scene of the crime before an ambulance had the chance to rush him to the hospital.
The murder raised a whole slew of questions to authorities, since Hashi held a part-time job working at an airport, all while studying accounting at the time of his death. Hashi also attended a mosque quite regularly, even embarking on a trip to the middle east with the community from his mosque. A community member gave a speech in a news conference the days after his death.
So what could have provoked the death of the 20-year-old man? Was he involved in gangs? Very doubtful. Hashi was a victim of collateral damage due to an ongoing turf war which was happening at the time. The two opposing gangs in question are Lawrence Heights ‘Go Getem’ Gang’ and the ‘Falstaff Crips’, better known as the ‘Falstaff Marke Gang’. Top5 is considered high up in the hierarchy of the Go Getem’ Gang, or ‘GGG’, holding a critical role in the structure of the gang.
Top5 begins to play a part in this story when authorities start pointing the finger at him, accusing him of being one of the three suspects in the Honda Civic that was implicated in the shooting. Although they hadn’t accused him of being the gunman, they claimed he had instructed one of the suspects in the Civic to go and shoot Hashi, which Ali believed to be a gang member in an opposing Falstaff gang.
Turf War
Lawrence Heights is better known as ‘Jungle’ in the community, and it’s safe to say there has been an ongoing strife between Jungle and opposing neighborhood gangs in the Toronto area at the time, mainly Falstaff street gangs. It’s important to note that GGG is not the only gang in the Lawrence Heights neighborhood but there also exists the ‘Jungle Bloods’ and the ‘Family Comes First’ (FCF) street gangs. The latter gangs mentioned did NOT play a part in this story.
The ‘Falstaff Crips’ changed their name to the ‘Falstaff Marke Gang’ shortly after the murder of Sharmarke ‘Marke’ Wyed, who was shot to death on May 26th of 2015 in Fort McMurray, Alberta. This Falstaff street gang mainly operates between the 20, 30 & 40 projects of Falstaff Avenue. Keep in mind, 40 Falstaff Avenue is where Hashi was gunned down.
Top5 was seen pouring water out of a bottle in a video. Provoking the Falstaff Marke Gang, all the meanwhile being subliminal. This act was meant to mock the murder of ‘Marke’ Wyed referencing the location in which he had been shot to death; Clearwater Crescent.
The event which set the feud ablaze came on July 30th of 2017, when Top5’s brother, Said ‘Foolish’ Ali, was shot to death near a Shopper’s Drug Mart located near the intersection Lawrence Avenue and Dufferin Street. A video would surface years later of an individual stomping on a Shopper’s Drug Mart bag hinting disrespect to the death of Foolish, a topic Top5 would often write about in his rap verses. Foolish was 21 at the time of his death.
A grudge that consists of the enemy taking your brother’s life is not a light one, and so, it has been proved in this case. The person who was believed to be stomping on the shopper’s drug mart bag was a 16-year-old by the name of Hanad Ali, or ‘Clutch’ as he was known in the streets. If you are familiar with Top5’s music, you might stumble upon some disrespectful lyrics concerning a man by the name of ‘Clutch’. This is Hanad Ali, who was murdered on August 1st of 2019.
Clutch was murdered in a Falstaff housing complex and it still remains unsolved. Authorities do not believe Top5 was involved although he posted on Instagram only hours after Clutch’s murder stating “Karma is the most patient gangster ever”.
On January 30th, 2021, the day before the murder of Hashi, an Instagram account titled ‘hood._.politics’ had reposted the video of Clutch stomping on the Shoppers Drug Mart bag with a caption reading “Throwback vid of Clutch dissing Foolish RIP”. Top5 had later been tagged by one of the commenters on the post. It is unknown whether this Instagram post had motivated the murder of Hashi, or if the whole series of affairs was simply a coincidence.
January 31st, 2021
Was Top5 truly implicated in the homicide that occurred on January 31st of 2021 or was this just a low-blow by authorities, taking his music lyrics too literally and throwing a quick case together to scrutinize the man? The courts acquitted the case and released Top5 on September 19th of 2024, but we’ll present the facts and the places Top5 was seen frequenting on that very day, so the reader will be able to come up with their own conclusions.
Hassan ‘Top5’ Ali was first spotted on security cameras towards 12:45pm that day, at an apartment complex titled North Town Way where he had gotten on an elevator from the 14th floor to the lobby wearing a grey tracksuit. Only 20 minutes later he had gotten in a grey Mercedes-Benz, supposedly driven by an individual named Immanuel Misa, who would also play a part in Hashi’s homicide as the driver of the Honda Civic, which was implicated in the murder.
The Mercedes was then again seen towards 2:40pm, where Top5 had gotten out of the vehicles only to enter the North Town Way apartment building quickly and getting back into the Mercedes in less than 10 minutes. For the next 2 to 3 hours, Top5’s cellphone appeared to be in Scarborough. Authorities believed he was at a recording studio in the area, more specifically 123 Crockford Boulevard.
A call between Top5 and Misa had been placed a little before 6pm, 5 minutes later there was surveillance footage of an unknown man, alleged to be the shooter of Hashi, entering North Town Way, taking the elevator to the 14th floor, entering an apartment and exiting the building with an small object in a small green bag only the stand in the lobby and wait for the Mercedes in question to pick him up.
Only a short time after the grey Mercedes had picked up the unknown man from the North Town Way apartment building, Immanuel Misa’s cellphone was left near the same recording studio mentioned previously. Cellphone towers had only picked up activity from the phone at 9:16pm, a little after the shooting occurred. Top5’s cellphone had also not been in use from 6pm to 9:07pm.
The Honda Civic used in the crime was then captured on video lurking around 20, 30 and 40 Falstaff Avenue, stopping and circling in the area around 8:45pm. Only a short time later, the shooting occurred. Immanuel Misa was alleged to be the driver, while Top5 was sitting in the back seat and the shooter of Hashi in the passenger side.
The same Mercedes-Benz that Top5 had entered and exited throughout the afternoon had coincidently rolled back up in the driveway of North Town Way towards 9:20pm. Top5 had gone up to the 14th floor apartment only to come back to the Mercedes in a different outfit.
To Be Continued…
We’re not fans of writing articles in two installations, but one thing we hate more than that is leaving the public waiting and empty handed for more than a couple days. To keep things brief, we will write this article in two parts and merge them together after a couple weeks. -East
