Tensions ran high in an Ontario Superior Court on Sunday moments after a jury found Nawaf Al-Enzi guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Ottawa gang member Mohamad Zalal.

Al-Enzi, a man in his 30s, was convicted in 2010, but a new trial was ordered in 2014 after the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction. The court ruled that Al-Enzi was denied a fair trial when he was forced to represent himself after his lawyer had to step down for ethical reasons midway through the complex murder trial.

“Justice was done today,” said Crown prosecutor James Cavanagh as visibly upset members of Al-Enzi’s family protested the guilty verdict outside the Ottawa courtroom under heavy police presence.

“It was one of the most uncontrolled and chaotic scenes I’ve seen in my career,” Cavanagh said of the outburst in the courtroom.

“Upon hearing of the verdict, Al-Enzi began yelling at the judge and jury,” Cavanagh said. “And the family started yelling at the police officers.

“There was a lot of name-calling.”

“It was very tense,” according to several people present when the verdict was read.

Cavanagh credited Mike Hudson, the lead investigator, with mounting a solid case against Al-Enzi.

Cavanagh noted that the jury reached a guilty verdict without the testimony of two eyewitnesses to the killing who had fled after they were subpoenaed.

Hudson said police believe the two eyewitnesses “were either threatened or bribed” and are still searching for the pair.

“It represents justice for the victim and hopefully stabilization for the city,” said Hudson, who had been investigating the homicide since 2006.

“There have been lots of other attempted murders and shootings that are directly and indirectly related to this case,” Hudson said. “One of the witnesses testified that he’d lost five of his friends to shootings in the last year.”

There have been 24 killings in Ottawa this year, the highest for a single year since 1995 when the city also recorded 24 homicides.

Etai Hilzenrat, a lawyer with the Toronto firm of Alan Gold that represented Al-Enzi at the retrial, declined to comment after the verdict was read.

A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole before 25 years.