Video shows shooters on run
Events just before and after 2011 slaying of gangster in Kelowna take shape in videos shown at murder trial
In grainy video surveillance footage played Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court in Kelowna, two shooters dressed in black were seen running from the Delta Grand hotel toward Water Street during the August 2011 gang shooting that left Jonathan Bacon dead.
Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun are on trial for the murder of Bacon, a Red Scorpion gangster.
The three men are also charged with the attempted murder of Larry Amero of the Hells Angels, James Riach of the Independent Soldiers and their companions, Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black.
In court on Thursday, Crown counsel played dozens of surveillance videos from the day of the murder, Aug. 14, and the previous day.
In total, 20,000 hours of video surveillance footage was recovered from cameras in the area, said forensic video analyst Julianna Masson.
A team of police investigators went through all the videos and passed on anything of interest to Masson.
“If anything of interest was identified on the video, it would come to me to drill down further on it,” she said.
In a video shot at 2:40 p.m. Aug. 14, a white Porsche was seen in the reflection of the hotel conference centre, and people could be seen getting into the vehicle.
Moments later, the scene turned chaotic as two gunmen ran toward the vehicle and a crowd of bystanders ran between them, toward the hotel.
None of the surveillance videos include sound.
Bacon, Amero, Riach, Hadden-Watts and Black were inside the Porsche during the shooting.
Earlier in the trial, a witness testified seeing Bacon lying on the ground next to the Porsche, when one of the gunmen went over to him and shot him.
Another video showed Bacon, Amero and Black lining up for the buffet in the hotel two hours before the shooting.
Video clips from about 9:20 p.m. on Aug. 13 showed the white Porsche parked in front of the Delta Grand, as well as a man standing near the front door of the private residence club at the hotel.
“I believed him to be Matthew Shrader,” said Masson.
Several clips from that night showed Shrader walking around inside the hotel.
Around 10 p.m. that night, video clips showed Bacon, Amero, Riach and the two women leaving the private residence of the hotel.
Asked why she doesn’t concede and hold an immediate confidence vote when the legislature returns on June 22, Clark said times of uncertainty demand order.
“When we are in a period like this, something we haven’t experienced since 1952, we should make sure that we are going back to the rules that have governed these institutions for centuries,” she said. “That really is what provides our democracy with stability.”
Clark added that she doesn’t know if a change in government is inevitable.
“It’s an unusual situation when the party that gets the most seats doesn’t form government, if that’s what happens.”
Whatever the outcome, Clark said she plans to remain as leader of the B.C. Liberals.
“Whatever job voters give me and the house gives me in this parliament, I’m going to take it,” she told a news conference after a swearing-in ceremony.
Clark’s Liberals appeared dispirited entering the legislature, though Clark and Finance Minister Mike de Jong lightened the mood with a few dance steps.
The New Democrats’ ceremony was joyous. Beaming and laughing NDP members walked into the chamber as musicians outside sang the counter-culture anthem All You Need Is Love by The Beatles. Horgan said he wants to get back to the legislature to test Clark’s hold on power.
“We need a government in place as quickly as possible,” he said. “I believe we’ve been delaying unduly. We want to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
De Jong, who is also the Liberal house leader, said the legislature will elect a Speaker on June 22, but he wouldn’t say who is in line for the pivotal position in the minority government. He suggested political traditions generally mean the Speaker is a member of the current government.