Gunman in Laval homicide needed only 30 seconds to kill, trial hears
Court sees video of person in a hood entering, leaving victim's workplace
It took less than a half of a minute for someone to kill Alessandro Vinci.
Video evidence presented Thursday at the trial of alleged hit man Frédérick Silva, 41, who is accused of three murders and an attempted murder, shows that Vinci, one of the men he is alleged to have shot, was killed in less than 30 seconds.
Security cameras positioned outside Automobiles Vinci, the car dealership in Laval where the victim worked, recorded images of a gunman before and after he killed Vinci on Oct. 11, 2018.
The videos were presented at the Montreal courthouse to Superior Court Justice Marc David by witness Det.-sgt. Steve Gervais, the Sûreté du Québec investigator who was in charge of the crime scene.
Gervais said the man wearing a hood who is seen in the videos, beginning at 8:34 p.m., was the shooter. The man is seen walking along a sidewalk in front of the dealership before he suddenly pauses, turns around and walks back in the direction he came from. Another video shows the man heading toward the back of the dealership only to return to the entrance seconds later.
The man entered the dealership at 8:36:23 p.m. and is seen running out roughly 30 seconds later. He tripped but recovered quickly and ran west along Lévesque Blvd. W.
Gervais said there were no security cameras inside the dealership. During a 911 call played at the courthouse on Wednesday, one of two people who talked to the operator said Vinci showed no signs of life after he was shot.
Gervais said he recovered 14 spent shell casings and a firearm equipped with a silencer from the tiny office inside the dealership owned by Vinci's family. Crime scene photos presented as evidence on Wednesday indicate the victim was cornered and had nowhere to hide as the man who killed him kept firing, missing his target often.
Gervais was the fourth witness so far to be asked several questions about an STM ticket that was found by a specially trained dog the day after the homicide. The German shepherd worked for the Laval police at the time and found the ticket on the front lawn of an apartment building on Lévesque, close to the car dealership.
According to information stamped on the ticket, it was purchased the day of the homicide and was validated at 7:04 p.m. that same day.
While being cross-examined by defence lawyer Danielle Roy, Gervais said he did not try to determine whether the ticket had been used at a Laval métro station or on a bus that runs along Lévesque the night of the shooting.
On Wednesday, a crime scene technician who took photos the day after the shooting said three fingerprints were found on the STM ticket. So far, no witness has said whether the fingerprints belong to Silva.
The trial will resume next week. Silva is also charged with the attempted murder of Montreal Mafia leader Salvatore Scoppa on Feb. 21, 2017, and the first-degree murders of Yvon Marchand, a convicted drug dealer killed on Oct. 29, 2018, and Sébastien Beauchamp, a man who had close ties to the Hells Angels, on Dec. 20, 2018.