Two more men charged in murder of pregnant woman, husband in Bowmanville
Posted March 13, 2024 2:02 pm.
Last Updated March 13, 2024 3:20 pm.
The Durham Regional Police Service has charged two more men with first-degree murder in the homicide of a couple from Bowmanville who were killed in their home just over a year ago.
Authorities announced last week that three men had been arrested in connection to the double homicide of Aram Kamel and Rafad Alzubaidy, who was six months pregnant at the time of her death.
The three accused were identified as Illia Ayo, 22, Abinasir Aden, 22, and Emmanuel Ezbon, 21 — all of Toronto. They all face two counts each of first-degree murder.
Officers responded to a home on Crombie Street shortly after 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, after receiving a call to check on the well-being of the occupants. When police arrived, they found two people dead with “obvious signs of trauma.”
The two victims were shot several times at close range about an hour before police were called to the home, according to investigators, who believe the couple was targeted.
Kamel owned a jewelry store in Toronto and had a workshop at his Bowmanville residence, where the couple had been living for approximately two years. Investigators have ruled out that some of Kamel’s legal trouble at the time had any connection to the killing.
In an update on Wednesday, police said two additional suspects had been arrested. They were identified as 22-year-old Demouy Blair of Oshawa and 37-year-old Rocky Steve Stevenson of Ajax and charged with two counts each of first-degree murder.
Some of the accused tied to past crimes across GTA
Just weeks before the double homicide in Bowmanville, Ayo, one of the three men charged last week, was previously the subject of a Canada-wide warrant for the homicide of 24-year-old Alexander Mills-Smith of Toronto.
Ayo was charged in connection with shootings in Brampton, North York, and Vaughan. In those incidents, three were injured, and one was killed. Aden was also charged with accessory after the fact in the same Vaughan shooting Ayo was accused of carrying out.
Stevenson was one of five people arrested by the RCMP in a money laundering and theft scheme from February and March 2023. The charges included fraud of over $5,000, theft of over $5,000, possession of proceeds of crime and laundering proceeds of crime.
Authorities declined to confirm whether these men were already in jail or elsewhere when they were arrested for the double homicide, only saying there were no charges of breaching bail conditions.
