An ambush in a Saskatoon apartment two years ago went violently and fatally sideways when two men burst out of a bedroom with zip ties and duct tape.
They both had guns. But so did Brandon Baxandall, 29, whom they had lured to the apartment on the pretext of paying off a debt.
Details of what happened on May 19, 2022, at 710 Melrose Ave. are contained in an agreed statement of facts that had been subject to a court-ordered publication ban recently lifted by Court of King’s Bench Justice Mona Dovell.
The six-page document lays out what happens when drugs, guns and bad blood are mixed. All of the men in the apartment that day were known to each other from the cocaine trade, and they had ties that stretched back to drug dealing in 2017 in the Northwest Territories.
Baxandall died of gunshot wounds that day on the pavement of the apartment building’s parking lot. The man who rented the suite, Mohamed Abdula Ali, 37, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years.
Noor Ndayisaba, who was in the apartment, was shot once in the stomach but never charged. Four months later, he was shot three times outside a Pawlychenko Lane apartment complex because he had co-operated with police on the Melrose shootout. He survived.
Police are still searching for Jonathon Ouellet-Gendron, who is charged with first-degree murder in Baxandall’s death.
Jonathon Ouellet-Gendron, originally from Quebec, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Brandon Baxandall. He remains at large. (Saskatoon Police Service)
According to the court document Ali was trying to get out of the drug trade in May 2022. He rented the suite on Melrose for his drug business but lived in Alberta, and his wife had just given birth to their second child. He was packing up to head west.
On May 4, though, he met with Gendron and drove him to the Canadian Tire at Preston Crossing.
“At the store, Gendron purchased zip ties, duct tape, gardening sheers and rope,” according to the statement. It says Ali knew the items were not for yard work, but rather for “his drug trade business.”
On May 19, the various parties converged on the Melrose building. According to the statement Ndayisaba suspected bad things were on the horizon while he was driving Ali, Gendron and an “unknown black male referred to as ‘Bob'” to the building.
“While in the vehicle, Ndayisaba overheard a conversation in French about drugs and robbing someone. [Ali] does not speak French; Gendron is from Montreal,” the document says.
Ali called Baxandall and arranged to meet at the apartment, even though he knew Gendron wanted to meet “for nefarious reasons,” the statement says.
Baxandall arrived and was paid the money owed by Ali. The two men and Ndayisaba chatted until “Bob and Gendron came out of the bedroom and they rushed towards [Baxandall].”
“[Baxandall] was a big guy and trying to fight the 2 men off; they tried to bind his arms with white zip ties and put duct tape over his mouth.”
Baxandall drew his Glock handgun and shot toward Bob, but instead hit Ndayisaba in the stomach. Then his gun jammed.
“Gendron and Bob drew their firearms … a gunfight ensued.”
The apartment was littered with zip ties and shell casings. (Saskatoon Police Service)
Ali was shot three times. Baxandall was shot in the neck, side and twice in the back as he ran out of the apartment. He managed to phone a friend and asked that he be picked up because he had been shot.
The man arrived within minutes but, by that time, Baxandall was unconscious on the ground. The man was unable to get him into the car, so he took Baxandall’s semi-automatic pistol and tossed it in a blue Loraas bin and drove away.
“The firearm was recovered by Saskatoon Police Service and confirmed to have [Baxandall’s) DNA on it and had a blockage so that it would no longer discharge,” the statement says.
Ali ran to a cab near the apartment and went to hospital, where he was arrested when doctors called police.
Ndayisaba, Bob and Gendron took off on foot and vanished into Nutana.
Two other handguns were found in a garbage bin a half block away from the building. They were both linked to the ambush by DNA.
Ali was interviewed by police four days after the shooting. He maintained that he was a victim because he had been shot multiple times in the ambush and, although he had a nine-millimetre Daewoo handgun recovered from the garbage bin, it had not been fired.
In August 2024, Ali pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possessing a handgun while prohibited. Justice Dovell accepted the joint submission for a six-year sentence.