Screaming and ranting, possessing super strength and calm and concise. Those are the words Peterborough police used to describe Thomas Chan on Dec. 28, 2015, the night of Chan’s arrest.
The 21-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder of his father, Dr. Andrew Chan, and the attempted murder and aggravated assault of Chan’s partner, Lynn Witteveen.
Chan’s trial began in Superior Court last week.
On Monday, Peterborough police Const. Chad Heenan testified that he arrived alongside two other officers shortly after 3:40 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2015. He and another officer approached the front door. A third went around the back.
Heenan told court he could hear yelling coming from inside the house. He and an officer each tried kicking in the door. Aware that there was a man with a knife inside the house, Heenan told court he had his firearm drawn.
He said he could hear a man inside yelling, “I’m God.”
Heenan told court the door opened and a man came out with his hands out, instantly falling on the ground in front of them. He holstered his gun, he testified, and managed to get the man’s hands behind his back and in handcuffs. He identified that man as Thomas Chan.
“He mumbled to me, almost under his breath, ‘I’m God, I’ve finished my plan, put a bullet in my head,” Heenan testified.
Heenan told court Chan began to struggle with him, even lifting the officer off the ground despite the fact that he was lying on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind him. Later, the officer would note that he believed Chan was under the influence of something, given his strength and what he was saying.
It took several officers to get Chan into a cruiser.
Heenan said he could see officers performing CPR in the kitchen on someone and grabbed a medical bag from the back of his cruiser. Officers continued to perform CPR on Dr. Chan until they were told to stop by a medical professional.
Const. Brandon Edwards followed Heenan on the stand.
He told court he saw Heenan and another officer struggling with someone near the driveway of the Haggis Drive home he was dispatched to. Edwards said he helped get that person, identified as Chan, under control and in the back of the cruiser.
Edwards drove Chan to the Water Street police station. He described Chan as “calm and concise,” on the drive. He appeared to understand that he was under arrest for murder, Edwards told court, and named several people he wanted to talk to. Edwards said he heard Chan say that he would “never do it again.”
At the station, Chan was processed, read his rights and photographed and swabbed by a forensics officer. Police seized his clothing. Officers noted that he had sustained some cuts, and took him to the hospital for examination.
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