The death of Constable Robert Plunkett was as brutal as it was shocking:

Detective Constable Robert Plunkett, a 22-year veteran of the force who was known for his bravery and charity work, was part of a team of officers that had followed two suspected car thieves to a quiet suburban neighbourhood.

As Det. Const. Plunkett approached a suspect, the man put the car into reverse and hit the officer with an open door. Det. Const. Plunkett was then dragged backwards and suffered fatal injuries when he was pinned between the door and a maple tree.

The officer was dragged backwards over several shrubs and onto one of the neatly trimmed lawns on Ascot Crescent. When the open door of the car struck a maple tree, he was pinned against the trunk until the thief was able to break free.

The alleged thief was Nadeem Jiwa. His alleged accomplice was Baseer Mohammed Yousafzai, who was out on bail for undisclosed charges.

Nadeem Jiwa, 19, of Toronto, is charged with manslaughter and Baseer Mohammed Yousafzai, also of Toronto, is charged with violating bail conditions, possession of stolen property and tampering with stolen property.

Nadeem was allegedly in a gold Honda, removing the airbag, when Plunkett tried to make an arrest. Yousafzai was in a white Honda and was trying to flee the scene when he was arrested.

Nadeem Jiwa has been very active online in the buying and selling of radio-controlled car, cell phones, and real cars,. As serpentracer123, in 2003, identifying himself as a 15-year-old in Toronto, which would make him 19 today, trying to sell a radio-controlled car:

MICRO RS4 FOR SALE w/ pics posted. WILL TRADE FOR NITRO. L@@K CHEAP CHEAP.
THIS MICRO COMES WITH :

-speed 300 motor
-stock motor
-msonik ecos fet esc.

asking 180

Other posts on the thread warn potential customers away from Nadeem Jiwa:

FYI guys, many local people in Toronto (not spelled Tooronot ) have had problems with Nadeem Jiwa.

Deal with him carefully if at all.

I live in Ottawa but everyone from London to Ottawa and in-between has heard of this guy. He has basically been kicked off the TORC forum for ripping people off.

On yet another R/C forum, Nadeem Jiwa is tagged as someone to avoid:

This kid is a chump, but another kid to look out for is Nadeem Jiwa, he also lives in the Toronto Area, I believe its Mississauga. He has burned a few people up here, but I dont know if he comes to any american boards, just a heads up guys.

His wheeling and dealing included selling a scooter in order to buy a car:

Posted by: Blunt87

Hi everyone,
Selling this gas scooter purchased on april 9, 2003. This is a mosquito dx 26 cc scooter.

Bought new for over 800.00

Reason for selling: I am getting a car .. need money.

asking price: 500

email : serpentracer123@hotmail.com

Nadeem was in a rush, looking to get that $500 "soon".

That was in May of 2003.

By July, Nadeem Jiwa had a 1984 Camaro for sale or trade:

sup all ,
selling a 1984 chevy camaro, this car is mint condition uner the hood and interior here are the specs:

interior: interior is mint, except for 1 rip in the fabric.

exterior:the ext...

Now, instead of serpentracer123, he was using the email account teamfast0@lycos.com.

It ought to be noted that on this forum, Nadeem went by the handle Blunt87. "87" no doubt refered to the year of his birth (making him 19 today), but in his profile, he lists his date of birth as January 1, 1952. It might be a defaulting date (the "January 1" date suggests that).

After buying, selling, and trading cars and cell phones through 2003 and 2004, Nadeem Jiwa drops off. Does his horse-trading continue? Did his reputation improve?

The report from the police states that the second man arrested, Baseer Yousafzai, was driving a white Honda Civic. Presumably this was the getaway car to be used to drive Jiwa and Yousafzai away from the site where the gold Honda, the one from which the airbag was being removed, would have been abandoned had Plunkett not attempted to make an arrest.

The white Honda was in the possession of Jiwa and Yousafzai with the permission of the owner:

The white Honda Civic is registered to Vishal Bilimoria, of Ajax, who runs an auto body shop there. When contacted yesterday by the National Post, Mr. Bilimoria said Mr. Jiwa would occasionally borrow his car and that he had been in possession of it for the past week.

"He is a friend of mine and he wanted to borrow the car to go out one night and I told him, 'Go ahead.' He would borrow the car from time to time. I had no idea what he was doing."

Mr. Bilimoria said Mr. Jiwa had just finished high school. "From what I know of him, he's a really nice guy, a jolly guy ... I was shocked to hear about all of this.

"I don't even know why anybody would take air bags. They're not that expensive to come across."

Vishal Bilimoria lives in Ajax, and besides running an auto body shop, he is also the Sports & Recreation Coordinator for Mochi Gnati Mandal Ontario, an East Indian cultural association.

I'm surprised by Bilimoria's comments with regards to air bags. He operates an auto body shop, so he ought to know the price of airbags. Poking around the web, it seems that replacing an airbag can cost upwards to $3,000 on some car models. Per airbag. The price of the replacement has created a thriving market in grey market airbags:

Since January, 43 air bag thefts have been reported, with Hondas and Acuras the most popular targets, Chief La Barge said. Stolen air bags seem to be a lucrative industry -- each can be sold for between $1,500 and $2,000 to autobody shops or individuals, he said.

The auto shop mechanic then sells the bag as new to unsuspecting customers. In other variations of the scam, the bags are acquired for a lot less, then sold to the customer as "reconditioned" for less than the cost of a new airbag. The customer is enticed to make the purchase to save on the full price of a new air bag, while each of the people in the theft ring makes a decent profit.

At least the customer is getting an airbag. Less scrupulous operations will install an empty shell in the airbag compartment and charge for it. Since you don't know if an airbag is really in there until it deploys (or doesn't deploy), many people fall victim to the scam.

Given the tragic death of a police officer, there is no doubt that police in all the GTA forces, from Peel through York and into Durham region, will be following up all leads. If Nadeem Jiwa was indeed working as part of a theft ring feeding airbags to unscrupulous auto shops, you can be certain police will be working to pull down the entire operation, all along the chain.

Update: Whatever people though of Nadeem Jiwa as a source of R/C products, somewhere along the line Nadeem Jiwa's reputation went badly south with the criminal justice system:

Nadeem Jiwa, 19, who was under a recognizance order to live on Hawkeshead Crescent in the Warden and McNicoll avenues area, has been charged with manslaughter.

No mention is made of the circumstances that led to Jiwa's order.

So both suspects were under recognizance orders.

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