Machine gun used to kill gangster, witness says
Rival on trial for 2009 hit at a strip mall in Langley
VANCOUVER — Florentin Pirvu was trying to park his car outside a Langley strip mall eight years ago when he saw a man pull a “machine gun” out of a black duffle bag and start firing at a truck just metres away.
Pirvu recounted the frightening scene in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday at the trial of Cory Vallee, who is charged with killing rival gangster Kevin LeClair.
Pirvu told Justice Janice Dillon that he was pulling into a spot not far from the Walnut Grove IGA in the Village at Thunderbird Centre when he noticed a strange sight.
“I was only halfway parking in my spot. Another person came with like a gym bag and he opened it up in front of my car, he took out a machine gun,” Pirvu testified.
He said the armed man went over to the passenger side of an “American truck” a few metres from him.
“He took the gun and he put it right on the window on the passenger side,” Pirvu said. “He pulled the trigger and it just clicked. Then he looked down. He didn’t know what was going on.”
The man adjusted the gun, pointed it at the truck as he started running around the back of the vehicle as the driver tried to get away, Pirvu testified.
“He started shooting against the truck,” he said. “At that time, I ducked. I was hearing lots of shooting. I also tried to make some pictures with my phone.”
Pirvu said he also saw a second person who had a handgun and tried unsuccessfully to open the driver’s door of the truck before the shooting started.The man with the machine gun was more muscular than the second gunman, he told Dillon, straining his memory to provide descriptions of each.
LeClair was gunned down on Feb. 6, 2009, after leaving a Browns Socialhouse pub and restaurant in the same mall.
Prosecutor David Jardine said in his opening submissions that former United Nations gang members would later testify that Vallee and Jesse Adkins were the two shooters that day. Adkins vanished in 2009 and is now believed to be dead.
Jardine said LeClair was targeted because he had left the UN gang to join the Bacon brothers and their rival Red Scorpion gang.
Vallee is also charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacons and their associates over several months in 2008 and 2009.
Earlier Thursday, Tyler Dinwoodie testified about being inside the pub, while LeClair was there, eating his final meal.
Shortly after LeClair left, Dinwoodie heard several shots and went outside, he said.
LeClair’s truck was revving and partially up on the sidewalk outside the IGA, Dinwoodie recalled.
“I went over to the truck to see what was happening.”
He said LeClair’s eyes were open so he started talking to him trying to get a response. But there was none.
“I noticed his foot was wedged on the gas pedal. That was when I remember I reached down and pulled his foot out.”