Dispute over cigarette led to LRT killing, court told
Man pulled gun during confrontation, victim’s brother testifies
A deadly confrontation between strangers in an LRT station began with a request for a cigarette, court heard on Wednesday.
Travis Thurier, an eyewitness to the point-blank shooting of his sister, testified in Court of Queen’s Bench that they first encountered the gunman when she asked him for a cigarette.
The Thuriers, and their relative Jordon Arcand, were in the Stadium LRT station on the night of May 21, 2010, so that Arcand could make a phone call.
Heather Rae Thurier, 23, asked a passerby if he had a cigarette. The man, wearing a red cap, did not answer.
Insistently, she asked two more times, and the confrontation began. Heather Thurier threw the change she was prepared to offer for a cigarette down on the floor.
On surveillance video, the man in the red cap became agitated and made a gun-like gesture with his hand.
“He started throwing up gang signs,” Travis Thurier testified, “and said, ‘Do you know who I am and what I can do to you?’ ”
The gunman took a few steps back from the pair, unslung his backpack and drew a gun.
“She probably didn’t care who he was,” Thurier said of his sister.
The gunman fumbled with the weapon for a few seconds, stooped to pick up a bullet he had dropped and loaded the gun. He gestured angrily at both siblings with the barrel.
“Why are you bringing out guns and waving them in our faces?” Heather Thurier asked angrily, according to her brother’s testimony.
The gunman appeared to walk away, then turned around.
Moments later, Heather Thurier lay dead, killed by a single shot to the head at close range.
Travis Thurier ran after his sister’s killer. He scuffled briefly with the man, who also had a knife Thurier had not seen before. Thurier then returned to his sister.
Court has already heard Heather Thurier was shot with a .22-calibre bullet, and a sawed-off rifle was found by investigators.
In the days after the shooting, two police officers identified the gun- man in the red cap as Colton Barry Ferguson from previous investigations in north Edmonton.
Ferguson, 20, is now on trial for first-degree murder and possession of a prohibited weapon.
Travis Thurier also identified Ferguson. “That’s the man that shot my sister,” he said in court.
For the first time, the entire surveillance video, including Thurier’s death, was played in open court. Relatives in the courtroom gasped and left in tears.
Ferguson showed no reaction to the video.
The trial continues.