Teen shot man dead, Crown says

Accused then tried to shoot another, but gun didn’t fire, murder trial told

A teen who shot and killed am an on a Burnaby Street also attempted to murder a second man at the scene, a prosecutor told a jury Monday.

The accused, who was 16 at the time of the September 2014 slaying of 20-year-old Aladdin Ramadan and cannot be identified due to a publication ban, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, attempted murder and pointing a firearm.

In her opening statement, Crown counsel Linda Ostry said that the prosecution case rests on a second teen who was at the scene and knew the victim. The second teen, who also cannot be identified due to a publication ban, was earlier in the day hanging out with Samir Mokhtar and saw the victim with another young man in front of the victim’s home, said Ostry.

Mokhtar got angry as he and the teen continued to hang out and Mokhtar made a number of phone calls, arguing, she told the jury. Mokhtar and the teen drove to Surrey to pick up the accused.

The teen heard the accused say that he had a gun, scaring the teen, who asked Mokhtar to drop him off, but Mokhtar reassured him and the teen remained. As the trio drove to Burnaby on the Lougheed Highway, a car driven by Ramadan pulled up beside them. The two vehicles turned right onto Rosser Avenue and then pulled over to the curb, where the two groups of young men got out of the vehicles. “We expect (the teen witness) will tell you that Aladdin Ramadan started speed-walking towards Samir Mokhtar and without warning, (the accused) pulled out his gun and shot Aladdin Ramadan towards the chest,” said Ostry.

“(The teen witness) saw the first shot hit Aladdin Ramadan and heard two more shots.” The teen then saw Nicholas Andreatta, who was a passenger in Ramadan’s car, try to kick the gun from his hands.

“The accused pointed the gun at Nick Andreatta and said, ‘ Do you want some of this?” The accused pointed the firearm at Andreatta and tried to fire it but the gun didn’t work. Mokhtar and the accused jumped into one of the vehicles and sped away, leaving the teen witness.

The accused was arrested about a week later, possessing a handgun alleged to be the murder weapon.