Hostage feared for her life, inquest hears
The ex-girlfriend of a man shot dead by police testified Tuesday she feared for her life after months of relentless harassment by Mehrdad Bayrami.
The death of Bayrami ended a dramatic armed hostage taking and standoff outside the woman’s workplace in 2012.
The kidnap attempt at the Starlight Casino in New Westminster was caught on security video and played Tuesday on the first day of a coroner’s inquest.
Tetiana Piltsina, who ended an 11-year relationship with the then-48-year-old Bayrami, testified he had hidden a GPS device under the hood of her car so he could follow her. He also slashed her car tires three times, called her up to 70 times a day, approached her in the hot tub at her gym, turned up at her bank and grocery store and tailed her on the street.
“Everywhere I was, he would show up. I was scared to sleep, I was scared to work,” said the soft-spoken woman, wearing a white blouse and dark jacket.
The daily harassment started when she broke up with Bayrami in August 2012 and culminated on Nov. 8, 2012, when Bayrami confronted her in the dark parking lot of the Starlight when she arrived for her 6 a.m. shift.
“He had pulled a gun and said I had to get in the car, that we had to talk,” she said. “I didn’t think that was a good idea.”
The security video showed Bayrami holding a gun and forcing a struggling Piltsina into the passenger seat.
But repeatedly over 10 minutes, every time he ran around the car to get into the driver’s seat, she would hop out and he would return to grab her and force her back into the car. There is no audio, but they can be seen screaming at each other.
At one point, Bayrami shot twice at the car while Piltsina was in the passenger seat, shattering the front passenger window. Another bullet lodged in the side panel.
Piltsina’s co-workers tried to help, but Bayrami pointed the gun at one man who approached him and he fled, she said.
She testified she pleaded with him to hand over the gun, but he said he wasn’t going back to prison and the only way he was leaving was in a plastic bag. Piltsina testified she thought he would kill her if he could get away with it.
Police officers with guns drawn yelled at him to “drop the gun and let her go,” testified New Westminster police Const. Bernard Florido.
After Piltsina was released, Bayrami remained in a standoff with police that involved armoured vehicles and snipers for several hours before he was shot by Delta police Const. Jordan MacWilliams.
Earlier, psychiatrist Dr. Manoj Singhal testified he prescribed antidepressants to Bayrami three months before he was shot after diagnosing him as “severely depressed” and suicidal, but not psychotic.