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A sentence has been handed down against one of three men involved in a deadly gunfight outside a Toronto safe injection site more than two years ago that led to the death of an innocent bystander.
Ahmed Mustafa Ibrahim, now 23, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison, minus time served in pre-sentence custody.
The sentencing comes eight months after Ibrahim entered a surprise guilty plea in September 2025, weeks before his case was set to go to trial.
Ibrahim had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Caroline Huebner-Makurat in July 2023. He was 20 at the time of the shooting.
According to an agreed statement of facts read in court, Huebner-Makurat was on her way to meet her friend for lunch and was crossing Queen Street when a bullet fired during a shootout outside the Leslieville safe injection site went into her right side, through her kidney, liver and aorta, killing her. She fell to the ground after being struck and, despite efforts to save her, died from her injuries.
Huebner-Makurat, 44, worked at Air Canada at the time of her death and left behind her husband and two young daughters.
On July 7, 2023, the day of the shooting, Ibrahim, who was known by drug users and workers at the centre as “Ben,” was hanging out on the west side of the centre in a courtyard just east of the Queen Street East Presbyterian Church.
At approximately 12:20 p.m., a man dressed in black exited a TTC bus on the north side of the intersection of Queen and Carlaw.
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The “man in black,” as designated in the agreed statement of facts, and Ibrahim advanced on another man, known as the man in the white T-shirt — identified as Damian Hudson, who was also charged in Huebner-Makurat’s death — prompting him to run.
The statement of facts say the two men caught up with the man in the white T-shirt and are seen on video surveillance attacking him. A struggle occurs at which point Ibrahim pulls a satchel away from Hudson, while the man in black repeatedly hits Hudson with a handgun.
Video footage goes on to show at one point Ibrahim taking the satchel and running west, along with the man in black. A further struggle ensued.
As Ibrahim fled the scene, a shootout occurs between the man in black and the man in the white shirt. From video surveillance, it does not appear that Ibrahim was armed during the encounter.
“By his plea, Mr. Ibrahim admits that by participating in the robbery of the man in the white T-shirt with the man in the black, he created an objectively dangerous situation which posed a risk of bodily harm. As a result of that dangerous situation, Karoline Huebner-Makurat was killed,” said assistant Crown attorney Paul Zambonini in September following Ibrahim’s plea.
Hudson has already been tried by a jury for his role in the shooting of Huebner-Makurat. He was found guilty in December 2025 of second-degree murder. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May.
Ahmed Ali, the second alleged gunman, remains at large. Court has heard Ali is believed to have fled to Somalia days after the shooting.
In her decision, Justice Maureen Forestell noted Ibrahim had been in custody for 981 days or slightly more than two and a half years, having been arrested Aug. 14, 2023 and been in custody since at the Toronto South Detention Centre and Toronto East Detention Centre.
She also wrote that Ibrahim faced “excessively harsh” conditions, saying he was locked down for about a third of his time, and during his 374 days at the latter institution was offered fresh air only 46 times.
Given these conditions, Forestell said it should be considered in mitigation of Ibrahim’s sentence.
Ibrahim was seeking a sentence of seven years in prison before credit for days in pre-sentence custody, while the Crown sought a sentence of 10 years before credit.
Forestell sentenced Ibrahim on Monday to 10 years before statutory credit. She determined after that credit, Ibrahim has slightly less than six years, or 2,181 days, remaining in his sentence.
Ibrahim will also be barred from possessing any restricted firearm or prohibited firearm, weapon, device and ammunition for life. He will also be required to provide DNA samples of “bodily substances as are reasonably necessary” for the use in forensic DNA analysis.
—with files from Global News’ Catherine McDonald
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
