A man, who disappeared after pleading guilty for his role in a 2020 shooting in Calgary, was arrested in Upstate New York this week in connection to a fatal shooting in Edmonton that happened last year, police say.
A nationwide warrant was issued for 23-year-old Joseph Chlala last September, months after police found a young man shot dead in southwest Edmonton in June 2023.
On Monday, police learned that Chlala was arrested in Akwesasne, N.Y., a community near the Canada-U.S. border, the Edmonton Police Service said in a news release Friday.
The accused is the same man who pled guilty to manslaughter, in connection to a daytime shooting in Calgary in July 2020, then failed to show up to his sentencing hearing in March 2023, the Calgary Police Service said in a separate news release Friday.
Calgary police charged three suspects, including Chlala, then 19, for fatally shooting Christian Navos, a 32-year-old Edmonton resident, in a park in southeast Calgary.
Chlala was initially charged with first-degree murder, but he later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Calgary police issued an arrest warrant after he failed to appear for sentencing.
Police believed he had cut off the tracking bracelet on his ankle, which was issued as part of his bail conditions, according to a previous news release.
A few months later, Edmonton police officers found Osama Ali, 21, dead in an alley in the Allard neighbourhood, on the southern edge of the city. An autopsy later deemed his death was a homicide, Edmonton police said.
Edmonton homicide detectives requested a Canada-wide warrant for Chlala’s arrest in September 2023 on a second-degree murder charge in relation to the shooting, police said.
The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police arrested Chlala in Akwesasne, this week. He was deported and handed over to the Ontario Provincial Police, the EPS said.