WEST KELOWNA – It was an attempted murder.
But was it also an attempt to silence a key witness in a large drug trafficking case?
On August 2nd on a busy West Kelowna street a car was sprayed with gunfire.
The shooter showed up on a bicycle, unleashing a volley of bullets at the driver from a silencer-equipped, .40 caliber pistol.
Reginald Purdom was reportedly struck eight times but he still managed to ram the bike with his car and police arrested their suspect shortly afterwards.
Purdom is a prosecution witness in a United States court case.
He had agreed to cooperate with American authorities by testifying against Kevin Donald Kerfoot who is accused of being the ring-leader in an operation to transfer large amounts of cocaine and ecstacy between B.C. and Washington state.
Purdom agreed to testify against his former friend after getting caught smuggling 24,000 ecstacy pills in 2005.
Purdom pleaded guilty and was handed a 4.5 year prison sentence.
Meanwhile, Kerfoot was ordered extradited to the United States in 2009 on charges of conspiracy and trafficking 41 kilograms of cocaine.
Kerfoot appealed that order and his legal fight against extradition is on-going.
The man charged with trying to murder Purdom on behalf of a criminal organization, along with six other offenses, remains in custody.
Tyrone Reynolds McGee, 29, is scheduled to appear in Kelowna court Monday for a bail hearing.
Comments