Barber shot 18 seconds after men entered his shop: Crown
Hamilton Mountain barber Neil Harris was killed by two men who entered his shop “armed with handguns and murderous intent,” according to a prosecutor in the case.
Assistant Crown attorney Brian Adsett told a jury it took just 18 seconds for the men to confront Harris at his 600 Upper Wellington St. shop and shoot him on Feb. 18, 2016.
Adsett made the comments in his opening address to the jury on Wednesday, at the start of the first-degree murder trial of Odain Gardner and Erick Reid, both in their 20s.
The statements are not evidence, but rather a summary of the evidence the Crown expects the jury will hear.
Harris, a father of two, had his own barbershop business for 13 years. The jury is due to hear that in addition to cutting hair, Harris also sold small amounts of marijuana from his shop to customers.
Adsett told the jury, “Surveillance cameras on Upper Wellington captured the two accused approaching on foot. It shows them entering the barbershop, and about 18 seconds later, it shows them fleeing the scene while Neil Harris collapses, dying on the sidewalk.”
Several Good Samaritans heard the shot and ran to try to save Harris.
The jury is also expected to
hear from two customers, one getting his hair cut at the time. The other, waiting for a cut, recognized Gardner and Reid from the Oriole Crescent neighbourhood in east Hamilton where they grew up, Adsett said.
There was a brief scuffle between Reid and Harris just outside the doorway of the shop before Harris collapsed outside on the sidewalk.
Court heard Harris’ wife Tanya Harris testify on Wednesday about her husband of 14 years, and from some Good Samaritans who came to Harris’ aid.
Shirley Bell, an off-duty paramedic in Brantford, testified she was visiting a tattoo artist friend with her daughter and boyfriend at his shop beside the barber that late afternoon when they heard a loud noise that “sounded like a firecracker.”
She called 911 and walked out to see a man on the ground and another man trying to assist him.
“I told the dispatcher what I was seeing. I lifted his (Harris’) stained shirt ... I saw two small wounds oozing blood,” she testified. “I knew we needed to start
CPR right away ...”
The fire department then showed up and took over, Bell said. When the ambulance arrived, she gave the paramedics a rundown of what happened and offered her help.
She ended up assisting inside the ambulance as it rushed Harris to hospital.
Paul Scott, a mechanic at Tower Service Station at Upper Wellington and Brucedale, testified he saw two men running through the service station parking lot, in front of the car shop bays just before 5 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2016, but could not give a description of them.
However, he helped police by giving them the shop’s surveillance video from that day, he said.
In the video, shown in court, two men can be seen running across the parking lot.
Adsett, in his address, gave no motive for the shooting.
The trial is expected to last four to five weeks.