HAMILTON – A Hamilton-area homeowner testified on Tuesday that his four years of training as a military reservist kicked in shortly before he went outside and shot dead a man who was trying to steal his pickup truck from his rural home’s driveway under the cover of darkness.
Speaking from the witness stand, Peter Khill told the jury that his now-wife alerted him in the early hours of Feb. 4, 2016, to the possibility of intruders.
“It was still very much relevant for me,” he said of his reservist years. “There are certain triggers or certain situations that can bring on aspects of your training.”
Khill, 28, said he got up and went to the bedroom window, where he saw the radio light of his truck was on. He said he wondered who was out there, if they were armed, and what they wanted.
“It was a real-life threat assessment,” Khill said. “I felt that I was being threatened and I felt that I was not in control of the situation.”
Khill has already admitted through his lawyer to gunning down Jon Styres, 29, a father of two from Ohsweken, Ont., on the Six Nations reserve about 30 minutes away.
However, he has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in a case bearing some similarities to the killing of an Indigenous man in Saskatchewan by a white farmer, who was recently acquitted.
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A trained millwright who now works on jet engines, Khill was a member of the 56 Field Regiment based in Brantford, Ont., from 2007 to 2011. The aim of his highly repetitive military training was to get to the point of “almost instinctive” action, he said.
Khill told jurors he retrieved his shotgun – otherwise used for hunting – from the bedroom closet, removed the trigger lock, loaded two shells, and racked the gun to make it ready for use. Asked why he didn’t call 911, he said he worried someone could get into the house within seconds and so he didn’t have the time.
READ MORE: Jury in Hamilton hears 911 call made after the shooting death of Indigenous man
“I was just going to go outside and find out who’s here.”
Dressed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, he went downstairs, sneaked out the back door and through a breezeway to the driveway, Khill said.
He recounted coming around the back of the 2001 truck he had bought for $2,900, saying he could only make out a silhouette in the darkness – he wasn’t sure if it was a man or woman – leaning into the cab through the open passenger door.
In an opening statement earlier in the day, defence lawyer Jeffrey Manishen told the jury the case was about self-defence.
“It was not a matter of going outside to shoot; it was not a matter of going outside to protect a truck,” the lawyer told Superior Court. “He didn’t know if there were one or more persons in the area (but) he was determined to get control of the situation.”
Manishen said jurors needed to focus on what Khill believed at the time, and would have to decide whether the force he used given the context was reasonable.
READ MORE: Murder trial begins in Hamilton for white man charged with killing Indigenous man
Walter Sroka, a former military reservist who trained Khill during his stint with the 56 Field Regiment, was the first defence witness.
“The training is based on repetition,” Sroka, 33, said. “You do it so much that you don’t have to think about what you’re doing.”
The former trainer described how soldiers are taught to aim at the “centre of mass” – the upper torso – and to fire at least twice as the best way to neutralize a target.
Jurors have heard that one shotgun blast from Khill hit Styres square in the middle of his chest, while the other hit him in the back of the shoulder before entering his chest.
Sroka stressed soldiers – like police officers – are taught to assess a situation and use the least amount of force required to deal with a threat.
“Soldiers are never trained to just charge blindly at the enemy?” prosecutor Steve O’Brien said in cross-examination.
“That’s correct,” Sroka replied.
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