Witness watched fatal shooting from his front door, court told

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Calgarian Kent Ta went to his front door to await a food delivery only to see a fatal shooting instead, he told a jury Monday.

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Ta says he went to the screen door of his Memorial Dr. SE house when he heard a commotion at his neighbor’s house.

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“I saw a couple of guys arguing,” he told Crown prosecutor Tiffany Dwyer.

“I saw two guys arguing and someone got shot.”

Calgarians John Edward Tabler and Martin Wallace Yuen are on trial in connection with the March 27, 2021, death of Jesse George who was shot once in the neck.

Tabler is charged with second-degree murder, while Yuen faces a manslaughter charge. In opening statements last week, Dwyer said Yuen provided the firearm and Tabler pulled the trigger.

Ta said he did not know his neighbors at 5227 Memorial Dr. SE didn’t, but said it seemed like two white men were driving two native men out of the house.

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Dwyer earlier told jurors that George was there with his brother, Dwayne Crazyboy, at the time of the shooting.

Ta testified that while he was arguing loudly, he could not make out what was being said.

“They were trying to get the two guys to leave the property,” he said.

“They told them to get out of there and they kind of pushed them to the street.”

At one point, one of the white men pointed a gun at the two men in a “warning” manner.

The eventual victim walked backwards and yelled at them, Ta said.

“I don’t think he was holding any weapon,” the witness said.

“He had nothing on him.”

Eventually, the victim made it to the road, he said.

“I saw the shooter raise the gun and shoot him right in the chest.”

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Ta suggested the gunman and victim were a foot apart, but later indicated a distance in the courtroom closer to six to eight feet.

Under cross-examination, defense counsel Rebecca Snukal suggested that Ta’s view may have been restricted at times by trees in his yard and the protruding yard window.

And he agreed that while the fighters were on a wheelchair ramp leading from the house to the sidewalk, he could not see the hands of one of the native men.

“You couldn’t see if they were somehow showing knives to the homeowners?”

“No,” replied Ta.

“You heard people from the house trying to get them to go on more than one occasion?” she asked.

“Yes,” said the witness.

“But it didn’t happen?”

“No.”

The trial, which was adjourned for three weeks, resumes on Wednesday.

KMartin@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @KMartinCourts