VANCOUVER – Staff at a small Vancouver health food company were preparing for a Christmas party when a fired employee returned with a shotgun, a murder trial heard Wednesday.
Prosecutor Sandra Cunningham, in her opening address to a jury, said the Crown will call witnesses over the next five weeks to prove Eric Kirkpatrick came to his former workplace on Dec. 12, 2008, to kill his former boss, Benjamin David Banky, 40.
The day before, the CEO of TallGrass Distribution Ltd., a natural health food supplier, had fired Kirkpatrick for having a bad work attitude.
The prosecutor said employees will testify they began to scatter and run out of the office when they saw Kirkpatrick arrive with a Remington pump-action shotgun.
Some ran to the company warehouse to warn others.
The prosecutor said one employee will testify she was leaning out an office window screaming for help after hearing the first two shots, when Kirkpatrick aimed the gun at her and told her to "Get out," so she ran.
The woman will testify she heard Kirkpatrick fire two more shots.
The prosecutor said the first shot was fired into a wall and the second struck Banky as he held up a chair to protect himself from the blast.
Banky fell to the floor and was shot twice more, the Crown said.
After, Kirkpatrick phoned police and confessed to killing his boss, whom he blamed for ruining his life, the Crown said.
The main issue at trial is expected to be Kirkpatrick’s state of mind at the time of the shooting.
Kirkpatrick, now 63, has a grey beard and long silver-grey hair pulled back in a ponytail. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
The first witness, Matthew Breech, Banky’s business partner and the co-founder of TallGrass, said he met Ben while they were studying in China and soon afterward they began importing natural health products and cosmetics to Canada.
He recalled Banky was generous and kind to employees.
Outside court, one of Banky’s close friends, Matt Heemskerk, described Banky as a big-hearted guy who encouraged employees "to be the best they could be."
"He had a huge heart," the friend recalled.
"He was a wonderful person, a devoted son and a loving husband."
Heemskerk said Banky had two goals — he wanted to make the world a better place and he wanted to make his employees better people.
Heemskerk explained that Banky’s family chose not to attend the trial because the evidence is too upsetting.
"He’s gone and reliving that moment over and over again won’t help them," Heemskerk said.
But Banky’s family and friends wants to see justice done, he added.
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