The gang war that had long festered in the Lower Mainland exploded in Kelowna six years ago, traumatizing everyone it touched.
The trial for Jonathan Bacon’s accused killers Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones picked up Tuesday, and Crown counsel called upon witnesses who found themselves in the cross-hairs of the criminal organizations at war Aug. 14, 2011.
Among them was Siu Ling Yu. She was with some friends and her two children, age three and six, when she found herself in the surreal position of being positioned between two gunmen as they shot down the white Porsche Cayenne with Bacon and company, although she wasn’t clear on what was happening right away.
Yu and her children were walking near the stop sign outside the Delta parking lot when she heard a “continuous” popping sound comparable to bubble wrap feverishly being compressed.
When she took stock of her circumstances, however, it was immediately apparent to be something more.
Two men who were within arm’s reach flanked her, one going to his knees.
“(They were) all in black, he had a black toque … and black gloves on as well,” said Yu. “The gun was long and the back had a triangle that was hollow.”
One of them, she said, exposed his wrist and she said he had darker skin.
”I thought it was someone from Pakistan culture,” she said.
When she saw them open fire, she picked up her three year and told her six-year-old to run ahead of her.
“Holy F**! Run. Don’t look back, just keep running,” Yu remembered saying to her children.
When she made it to the hotel, one of the managers picked up the oldest child and took her to the office. Not long after the incident Yu packed up her family and left.
“My daughter (the six year old) didn’t want to stay, she just wanted to go home,” she said.
While the attack on Bacon continued to play out, the gravity of the situation hit more people.
The Mountie who was first to arrive upon the scene testified Monday that she encountered pure pandemonium.
“People were screaming at me that (someone had) been shot. I could see somebody laying on the ground behind the vehicle, it was a white vehicle,” said Const. Jennifer Hunter, to BC Supreme Court Justice Allan Betton Monday.
Hunter called dispatch, reporting that at least one had been shot and she tried to wade through the scene. People were confused and approaching her with a variety of stories, and when she made her way to the Porsche Cayenne, she realized there were four victims.
It was Bacon on the ground, being administered CPR. Three more were in the white car.
“It was just chaos,” she said. “I described it initially as pandemonium. It seemed like I just got brought into something that was still very much a crisis.”
The shooting left Bacon dead, Leah Hadden Watts was shot in the neck and rendered a paraplegic, Amero was shot in the face, wrist and chest and Black was shot through both upper legs.
James Riach escaped injury.
The trial continues today.