Jury sees video of killing
Surveillance footage shows two men shooting man in Garden restaurant
A jury watched chilling surveillance footage Thursday capturing the final moments of Tariq Mohammed’s life inside the Garden Restaurant, a one-time popular spot for late-night Toronto partiers.
The colour images show two men with semi-automatic pistols firing multiple shots into Mohammed, 31, as he lay in a fetal position beneath the front counter where diners paid for their meals.
He was unarmed and his killers were strangers, prosecutor Liz Jackson said during her opening address this week.
The prosecution alleges one of the gunmen was Havard McKenzie, 27, who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Before the murder footage was shown, Superior Court Jus- tice Kenneth Campbell explained to jurors that the images had been edited to conceal the gunshot wounds and blood pooling on the floor.
“The recording of the killing is graphic enough without the needless gore,” Campbell told the jury. He also warned spectators to brace themselves.
Using a laser pointer, homicide Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux narrated the video chronology of what happened leading up to the killing inside the nowclosed Dundas St. W. eatery early Nov. 16, 2014. Mohammed, 31, and his friends were at the busy Chinese food restaurant celebrating a birthday around 3:45 a.m.
There was also a group of young men who weren’t there to eat. A surveillance camera recorded them loitering at the back of the restaurant and accosting Mohammed and his friend, Dennis Green, when they came to use the washrooms.
Two of the men, one alleged to be McKenzie, are seen bran- dishing handguns as they pushed the pair into the women’s washroom and struggled to rip chains from Green’s neck.
Once the chains had broken free, Mohammed and Green fled the area, leaving two of the bandits sparring over the stolen jewelry.
But seconds later, gunfire erupted at the entrance, wounding two diners, sending patrons ducking for cover and running for the exit, and leaving Mohammed dead on the floor.
Jurors also watched footage of the shooter alleged to be McKenzie pushing open a glass door in an area where the prosecution says his fingerprint was later found.
McKenzie’s lawyer, Gary Grill, has told the jury he doesn’t dispute that a print belonging to his client was found, but added “it cannot be said when any fingerprint is deposited on any surface.”
The trial resumes Monday afternoon.