‘Get out of the City’: Safe injection site worker testifies at Damian Hudson murder trial

Khalila Mohammed, a former community health worker who worked at the safe injection site for drug users inside the South Riverdale Community Health Centre in July 2023, testified Monday it was mentioned to her “that drug dealers are part of our community and without them, we don’t have clients.”

Mohammed said her work was to respond to overdoses, do referrals, connect clients to care, test drugs and work with the nursing team.

She explained she worked with drug users and drug dealers, saying she would frequently offer them cigarettes, water and to come inside on hot days. Mohammed testified she mainly interacted with dealers because she would “test their drugs.”

Mohammed, a Crown witness at the Damian Hudson second-degree murder trial, said Hudson, who has pleaded not guilty but has admitted to firing the bullet that killed 44-year-old Caroline Huebner-Makurat, was sending Mohammed threatening texts in the days and months leading up to the shooting.

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Mohammed who had worked at the safe injection site from August 2021 until August 2023, said in April 2023, Hudson, whom she knew as “Kevin” began sending her text messages, telling the jury that Hudson got her phone number after a drug user had used her phone to call him.

“It was a bunch of stuff asking me to ‘put him on’ and ‘backdoor him,'” said Mohammed, who explained Hudson wanted her to hook him up with drug users and help him rob people. She said she had seen Hudson selling drugs at the site before.

In one text message on April 16, 2023, Mohammed explained what a text message meant where Hudson asked her “do you need soft?”

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Mohammed said her response was “nah.”

Assistant Crown attorney Michael Wilson asked Mohammed if this was unusual. Mohammed responded it wasn’t.

“He’s asking me to find him people to sell him coke,” she explained saying she told Hudson to come by the site Monday.

“I work in the safe injection site. People don’t have drugs. We treat drug dealers like they’re part of the community. If he came by the site, I’m sure somebody would need something,” she added.

Wilson asked if it was her job to facilitate communication between drug users and dealers.

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“It’s not my job, but it’s not looked down on,” Mohammed replied.

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The following day, Mohammed told the jury, Hudson texted her to make it her business to refer drug users to him.

She testified she didn’t like to be told what to do testifying Hudson texted her seven or eight times to “plug him in” or to “backdoor him,” saying it continued until July 7, 2023.

Wilson asked Mohammed about another drug dealer whom she knew as “Ben” whose real name was Ahmed Ibrahim. She said they met in April or May 2023.

“We would talk in the courtyard. He would give me drugs to test,” she explained. “I tried to educate him about what was going on in the drug supply, what’s in the drug supply, overdoses, things like that.”

Mohamed explained she told Ibrahim about the text messages from “Kevin” and then on July 4, 2023, when she and Ibrahim were talking in the courtyard outside the safe injection site, she noticed a man who kept walking up and down the sidewalk.

That night she got a text message from Kevin saying, “is that the wiz from Teesdale you hanging with? I’m going to smoke him.” That’s when she realized the man she saw that day was Kevin.

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Mohammed identified Kevin as Hudson in court.

In another text, Hudson wrote, “you want to work with the Opps, if that’s the wiz from Teesdale, I’m smoking him.”

Wilson asked, “what does I’m smoking him mean in this context?” Mohammed replied, “fighting him, shooting him.”

Wilson asked how Mohammed felt about this message.

“I didn’t appreciate it. I felt threatened for no reason. I had done nothing wrong,” Mohammed added.

She explained that Hudson asked her if she was a “Jake,” which means an undercover officer, to which she said no, and asked her if she was romantically involved with Ibrahim, which she denied.

On July 5th, 2023, Mohammed said Hudson texted her that she was pissing him off by showing Ibrahim, a rival drug dealer, the messages and texted her, “Hang with the opps you gonna die with emm.”

Mohammed said she later got a text saying, “I’m the new captain.”

She said she wanted to meet with Hudson in person to explain that she wasn’t playing both sides.

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“I don’t do anything, I don’t sell drugs, I don’t rob people,” she explained.

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The jury has already heard that on July 7th, around 12:30 p.m., Hudson was robbed by Ibrahim and his associate Ahmed Ali. After the scuffle between drug dealers, there was an exchange of gunfire between Ali and Hudson. Hudson has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, though Hudson has admitted to firing the fatal shot.

Mohammed testified she had been outside with Ibrahim before the shooting and knew Hudson had arrived.

She said she was inside the safe injection site when she heard over a walkie-talkie that a fight had broken out.

She said she went outside and heard two to three gunshots and ran back towards the side door of the health centre admitting she took Ibrahim inside with her along with a drug user named Layla.

Mohammad said Ibrahim’s head was bleeding and she gave him a change of clothes from a clothing donation box, because he had thrown up on his clothes.

After about an hour, she testified she, Ibrahim and Layla walked through the lobby and went out the front door. She admitted she helped Ibrahim leave the area.

“We walked for a couple of blocks and I ordered him an Uber,” Mohammed testified.

Mohammed told court that in the days that followed, she continued communicating with him and told him what was happening with the police investigation.

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“Following the incident, you learned that police viewed Ibrahim as a suspect,” said Wilson.

Mohammed agreed and admitted that she lied to police in an interview on July 12, 2023. “Did you tell police the truth in that interview?’ asked Wilson. “No I did not.”

Mohammed admitted that she had been conveying information to Ibrahim and gave him advice to “get out of the city” because police were looking for him. She also told the jury their relationship “started to become more romantically involved” after July 7, 2023.

She said she quit her job in August 2023 and was arrested on Aug. 14, 2024.

“You were charged with accessory after the fact to manslaughter and obstruction of justice,” Wilson asked. Mohammed agreed, admitting that when she gave another interview to police she lied again.

The jury heard that Mohammed pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to manslaughter in December 2024 and was given a 17-and-a-half-month conditional sentence.

“Prior to pleading guilty, were you provided any kind of deal in exchange for testifying,” Wilson asked. Mohammed said no.

The 26-year-old said she is still serving the sentence.

When Wilson asked Mohammed how she feels about her behavior, she told court she is sorry.

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“What I did was extremely wrong. A major lack of judgement. It’s not who I want to be. If I could take it back, I would in a heart beat,” she said.

Mohammed will be cross-examined on Tuesday.