Family of teen who was fatally stabbed in Halifax says they are broken without him

Ahmad Maher Al Marrach, who was fatally stabbed in a parking garage near the Halifax Shopping Centre on April 22, 2024, is pictured. (Source: Facebook)

HALIFAX — The family of a teenage boy who was stabbed to death in a group attack in 2024 described their immense loss to a Halifax youth court judge on Monday, saying they are broken and their lives feel empty without him.

The boy’s mother and sister spoke during the sentencing hearing for a teenager who has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Ahmad Maher Al Marrach.

Speaking through an Arabic interpreter, Al Marrach’s mother Basima Al Jaji said she felt like she also died on the day her son was murdered.

“Since then, I have only been living in a body without a soul. I keep trying to come to terms with my son’s death but I cannot live like others who go on with their normal lives,” she told the courtroom and Judge Bronwyn Duffy.

Al Jaji said she wishes she could have been there in the Halifax mall parking garage to protect her son, “even if it meant giving my life. It would have been better for me to be like a shield on the back of my son.”

The 16-year-old accused, whose identity is protected from publication, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January. He was 14 at the time of the killing and has admitted to stabbing the Grade 10 student with a stolen kitchen knife on April 22, 2024. Three other teens were charged in the group attack.

According to an agreed statement of facts, the four teens met at a downtown Halifax shopping mall where the accused stole a large kitchen knife from a discount store in anticipation of joining in a fight with Al Marrach. The four teens, who all planned to join the fight, took a bus to a parkade in the city’s west end, where the brawl began. Al Marrach died after the teenager plunged his knife into the centre of Al Marrach’s chest.

Al Marrach’s sister told the courtroom that when her brother died, all the joy in life disappeared. “It’s as if light had gone out in our lives and inside of us,” she said, her voice shaking.

After her brother’s death, she said she couldn’t believe that he was really gone. She said she would wake up in the middle of the night and look all around the house for him. “I was sure that his death was just a nightmare that I had woken up from. But unfortunately it was real ... My innocent brother sleeps in our hearts now.”

Al Marrach arrived in Canada with his parents and six siblings in 2016 after escaping the war in Syria. His mother has said he helped raise his younger siblings, taking care of them by feeding them and getting them dressed for school.

Three of the boy’s brothers wrote victim impact statements, which were read in court Monday by Crown attorney Sarah Kirby.

The brothers each described their profound sense of loss, saying Al Marrach was kind, generous, caring and fun. He was religious, one of his brother’s said: “he tried to pray every day, no matter what or where he was.” The siblings loved to go skating, swimming and play lacrosse together, his brothers said.

One of Al Marrach’s older brothers said in his written statement he had “never felt lonely until he was gone.”

The accused sat up straight looking forward as he listened to Al Marrach’s family’s victim statements. Al Jaji and her daughter left the courtroom before the accused read a statement that his lawyer says he wrote.

The teenager apologized for killing Al Marrach, saying he made the biggest mistake of his life on that April day. “He had nothing but a positive impact of those around him. He was a good person. And here I am talking about him in the past tense.”

The accused said that he didn’t know Al Marrach, but he’s come to learn from the court proceedings that he was a kind, considerate and respectful person who was beloved by his family and friends.

“When I took Ahmad’s life, I ruined others’ (lives). I took their, brother, role model and support. I can’t forgive myself for that. I wish it all never happened. I didn’t plan to kill Ahmad and neither did my co-accused ... I wish I had stayed out of it. Instead I willingly joined a fight that didn’t concern me,” he said.

The teenager made note of the “horrible stuff” he wrote and said after the killing, which included rap lyrics about the stabbing written from a youth detention centre.

“I’m embarrassed and disgusted with myself.”

Sentencing will continue for the accused on Nov. 12.

The teenage girl involved in the brawl, who was 14 at the time of the killing, has admitted she was one of four teens who attacked Al Marrach and pleaded guilty to manslaughter last fall.

An 18-year-old boy the Crown says was responsible for organizing the fight has been convicted of manslaughter. And in August, another 18-year-old boy was sentenced to 10 months in a youth detention centre and 17 months of supervision in the community for his role in Al Marrach’s death.

By Lyndsay Armstrong

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2025.