Suspect, pal enjoyed sun before shooting, trial hears

A second friend of accused killer Richard Reed testified Tuesday about Reed contacting him for a ride after the 2020 Manzo restaurant murder.

Tyler Laramie-Chan said Reed either phoned or texted him sometime between 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2020 and early the next morning and asked to be picked up.

Reed is charged with the first-degree murder of alleged money launderer Jian Jun Zhu and the attempted murder of his associate Paul King Jin, who were dining with a group of 12 in the Manzo when a gunman opened fire about 7:34 p.m.

Laramie-Chan told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk that he drove to an area on Bowcock Road in Richmond and Reed walked toward his car and got in.

Crown prosecutor Rusty Antonuk said in his opening that a distinctive Calvin Klein hoodie believed to have been worn by the killer that night was found partly burned in a pot at a house on Bowcock near where Reed was picked up.

Laramie-Chan said he had been friends with Reed since kindergarten and that it wasn't unusual for him to call for a ride as he had no licence.

He confirmed to Antonuk that Reed later contacted him to ask for the address on Bowcock where he was picked up that night.

“I went on Google Maps, dropped a pin to the spot where I picked him up and sent him the address,” Laramie-Chan testified.

He also said he was with Reed hours before the murder as the two drove in Laramie-Chan's car to UBC “to enjoy the sun.”

“We were there for about an hour, hour and a half. Then a phone call came through — I don't remember how and we were headed back to Richmond to meet a friend,” he testified.

That friend was Gordon Ma, he confirmed, adding that he later left Reed and Ma together outside a Richmond church.

Antonuk said earlier in his opening that Ma was captured on video with Reed right before the fatal shooting at a townhouse complex near the Manzo.

Also Tuesday, Reed's friend Mohammad Elburai, who earlier testified that Reed had confessed to the Manzo shooting, told defence lawyer Kevin Westell that he was not sure about any of his evidence.

He said he had a bad memory and may have been repeating things that he had read in online news reports or heard from others.

“My memory is not that great,” he testified.

He agreed with Westell that Reed was his partner in the drug business at the time and that they were selling cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, but not fentanyl.

And he agreed that Reed had a drug problem at the time. “You had hoped he'd get clean and get off drugs?” Westell asked.

The trial, now in its third week, is expected to last six weeks.