They witnessed the gang shooting that killed Jonathan Bacon in downtown Kelowna, and now they’re being asked to remember what they saw nearly six years ago.
That’s when gunmen opened fire on a car carrying five people including three gangsters — resulting in the death of Bacon, a Red Scorpion gang leader.
A number of witnesses took the stand Wednesday and although it happened on August 14, 2011, some seemed to remember the event like it happened yesterday.
Diane Hofner was the first witness to take the stand Wednesday.
She just happened to be driving on Cawston Avenue — not far from the Grand Hotel — with a male friend in the front seat.
She testified that she was driving toward the hotel when she heard what sounded like firecrackers.
Then she saw — in her words — sparks coming from the muzzle of a gun and a man dressed in black standing beside an SUV — the vehicle the gunmen used in the shooting.
Her friend in the passenger seat told her to turn around and leave the area.
No sooner had she turned around that she saw the SUV in her rear view mirror.
She pulled over and let the speeding SUV go by.
Her friend then told her to go back to the hotel because someone may have been hurt.
Hofner drove back to the scene where her friend tended to the injured.
The next two witnesses were a husband and wife who were walking near the hotel when they heard popping sounds.
They both looked up to the sky. They thought they saw fireworks but then they noticed a masked gunman firing shots at a Porsche Cayenne being driven by Hells Angel Larry Amero, with Jonathan Bacon in the front passenger seat.
Bob Bjarnason then saw a masked man armed with a gun shooting at the driver’s window.
He estimated that he heard 40 to 50 shots being fired, which was consistent with the number of shell casings found at the scene — 45.
Meanwhile, Bjarnason’s wife Stephanie testified that when she saw the gunmen, she thought they were part of a film shoot but ran to a nearby casino and told everyone to stay inside when she realized it was no movie.
On Tuesday, a woman testified that Amero’s bullet-riddled Porsche nearly ran her over as he tried to escape the hail of bullets and that the gunmen were only feet away from her.
The trial continues.
Comments