A Crown prosecutor says a man accused of killing two people in separate drive-by shootings did so to advance his gang status.
Dillon Ricky Whitehawk, 27, has pleaded not guilty to two first-degree murder charges in the 2019 killings of Jordan Denton, 27, and Keenan Toto, 23, in Regina.
The men were shot on different days within three weeks, but prosecutor Adam Breker told a jury trial Tuesday that they died in the same way during a war between two street gangs.
Breker said Whitehawk was in a vehicle that had pulled up to each victim, while they were on foot, and he questioned them about their gang status before shooting them.
“Dillon Whitehawk had no knowledge of who these victims were before he shot them,” Breker said in his opening arguments.
“When they were killed, they were believed or loosely suspected of being rival gang members based on nothing.”
Breker said Whitehawk intended to kill the two men to raise his status and profile in his gang.
The first witness to testify was a Regina police officer who responded to the first shooting in November 2019. Denton’s body was in the snow of a home’s yard.
Const. Amber Hawker told the court that she and her partner performed chest compressions for about four minutes on Denton before emergency medical workers pronounced him dead.
Denton was killed with a .22-calibre bullet that went through his chest, the Crown told the jury.
Breker added that Toto was shot the following month with a rifle that was legally purchased by a former gang member at a hunting and outdoor recreation store.
The trial is expected to last three weeks and the Crown intends to call more than 30 witnesses.