Article content material
Graphic video displaying a gunman fatally taking pictures two people in a parked automobile just isn’t sufficient to convict homicide suspect Gerald David Benn, a prosecutor conceded Thursday.
Article content material
However Crown legal professional Doug Taylor stated a mixture of the video and different proof result in the inescapable conclusion that Benn was the gunman who killed Calgarians Abas Ibrahim and Mohamed Shaikh on Aug. 28, 2020.
Article content material
Taylor informed Choose Nick Devlin {that a} comparability of the video with a body-worn digital camera from Benn’s arrest greater than per week after the shootings would result in the conclusion that he’s seemingly the killer.
And Taylor stated the truth that Benn’s fingerprints and DNA had been discovered on luggage left on the scene by the killer “settled the problem.”
However protection lawyer Andrea Urquhart countered there have been too many unanswered questions for the Court docket of King’s Bench decide to search out past cheap doubt her shopper was liable for the deaths.
Benn, 25, faces two counts of second-degree homicide within the shootings of Ibrahim, 27, and Shaikh, 19, in what was believed to be a faux drug deal.
He’s additionally charged with tried homicide within the taking pictures of Dimetri Marr, who was a passenger within the again seat of Ibrahim’s parked Nissan Altima.
Safety video taken from close by companies captured Ibrahim parking his automobile on Sandarac Highway NW, adopted a short while later by an Infiniti G-37, which pulled up behind.
A person believed to be Jason Ward went forwards and backwards between the Infiniti and the Altima twice earlier than being compelled into the again seat.
At the moment, a person exited the Infiniti and pulled out a gun that was in a Walmart and Wendy’s pockets, walked as much as the Altima and fired a number of pictures into the inside.
Article content material
Ibrahim was in a position to drive away from the scene earlier than crashing right into a tree about 100 to 150 meters away.
Taylor stated Benn, who was initially charged with first-degree homicide however Urquhart was in a position to persuade Devlin throughout a mid-trial movement that there was no proof of planning and deliberation, ought to be discovered responsible of two counts of second-degree homicide.
He stated the proof was clear Benn shot on the sufferer with the intent to kill them.
“He stood on the again door of the Altima and fired a semi-automatic firearm six instances.”
However Urquhart stated among the many unanswered questions within the Crown’s case are when Benn’s fingerprints ended up on the Walmart bag and when his DNA was transferred to the Wendy’s bag.
And he or she stated there have been a number of different prints on each luggage belonging to unknown people.
Devlin will challenge a ruling at a later date.
KMartin@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @KMartinCourts
