The last few moments of Red Scorpion gang leader Jonathan Bacon’s life were shown in court as week two wrapped up, though they were difficult to make out.
Surveillance footage from the Delta Grand Hotel Aug. 14, 2011 showed the Porsche Cayenne SUV rolls to a stop as gunmen open fire. Tourists are in caught in the mix, and people start running.
The video is brief and doesn’t offer a lot of insight that hasn’t already been brought forth with eye witness accounts.
What may have been more illustrative of where the case is going is footage from hours before it became the battleground of a gang war.
The dark, grey and grainy footage has shown at least four men enter and leave the hotel between Aug. 13 and 14, 2011.
In footage from the day before the shooting, forensic video analyst Juliana Masson identifies Matthew Schrader, who has been identified by local Mounties as someone linked to several organized crime groups. As of yet, It’s not been made clear why his presence at the hotel has been highlighted and he doesn’t seem to stay long.
The next person identified is a witness whose name is under a publication ban. He goes into the hotel, and leaves in the early morning hours of Aug. 14, 2011.
At around 4:17 a.m. Masson shows footage of two men wearing ball caps enter and leave the hotel.
These men have yet to be identified by Masson, but in opening statements Dave Ruse said that two of the accused—Jason McBride and Michael Jones—had gone to the hotel to get the lay of the land before the shooting.
Yet to be played is the shooting itself, though it’s expected in the days ahead. Otherwise the trial has been focused on the evidence collected in the aftermath.
On Thursday morning, Cpl. Cora Malewski talked about the bullets she collected from the scene. In total there were 45 bullet casings and two live rounds found in and around the SUV.
Malewski also offered evidence about three guns found three months after the shooting. There were no fingerprints or DNA on any.
Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones were arrested in 2013 and each face a charge of murder, four charges of attempted murder and various firearm offences.
Jonathan Bacon died at the scene, Leah Hadden-Watts was shot in the neck and rendered a paraplegic, Larry Amero was shot in the face, wrist and chest and Lyndsey Black was shot through both upper legs. James Riach escaped injury.