A man who was walking with Phil Haiart at the time the teen was fatally shot testified on Tuesday at the second-degree murder trial of the man accused of pulling the trigger.
Prosecutors say Abass Jalloh, now 30, and Haiart, 17, inadvertently walked into a gang-related shooting when the two began crossing Maryland Street near Sargent Avenue about 11 p.m. on Oct. 10, 2005.
Haiart died from his injuries and Jalloh was shot in the forearm.
'I got to talk to the jury — I don't got to talk to you.'—Abass Jalloh
Jeffrey Hernandez Cansanay, 24, is charged with the killing and three counts of attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
On Tuesday, Jalloh told jurors that he met Haiart outside a convenience store a few blocks east of the eventual crime scene and the two began walking towards it.
Jalloh said he and Haiart reached the intersection and began crossing the street when two people riding bicycles and wearing hooded sweatshirts whizzed by, Jalloh said.
The Crown alleges the two men on the bikes were the intended targets of the shooting, and that Haiart and Jalloh were innocent bystanders.
"I just see them going fast and hear two gunshots, after that I hear two more gunshots," he testified. One of the bullets ripped through Jalloh's right forearm and the other hit Haiart in the stomach.
Jalloh said he was confused about where the bullets were coming from because it was dark, but added he thought he heard one of the people on the bikes say the word "dip" — meaning to duck out of the way in street parlance. He's still not sure if the warning was meant for Haiart and him, Jalloh said.
"Maybe they were talking to themselves," Jalloh said.
In the sudden explosion of events, Jalloh said he didn't notice what had happened to Haiart until he turned and began running the other way.
He also said he didn't know how badly Haiart was hurt until the two made it about a block away and the teen dropped to the sidewalk and began crawling.
"Ooh, something's wrong," Jalloh told jurors he remembers thinking at the time.
The only thing Haiart said to him is that he had been shot, Jalloh said. He said Haiart showed him a bullet wound in his abdomen.
Jalloh said he put his hand over the teen's wound to try to staunch the bleeding and began asking passersby for help.
About two minutes later, the first police car arrived.
Gang war sparked shooting
The Crown alleges the people Jalloh saw on the bicycles were members of Winnipeg's Mad Cowz street gang and the intended targets of the shooting.
The Mad Cowz were angry with Cansanay and a teenaged boy who was selling crack cocaine out of the house at 606 McGee St. where Cansanay lived, the Crown told jurors on Monday. The house is just metres from where Haiart and Jalloh were shot.
Crown attorney Gerry Bowering said Cansanay and the teen confronted the gang members as they stood watching activities at the house, which had been the scene of an attempted firebombing just hours earlier.
Police and the Crown allege Cansanay pointed and fired shots from a .22-calibre rifle which has never been recovered.
Conflicting testimony
Jalloh gave conflicting answers as to whether he knew Haiart prior to the night of the shootings.
Under direct examination by the Crown, he said Haiart was a total stranger who approached him outside the convenience store and asked for a cigarette.
The two walked together so that Haiart could have the last drag of the smoke, he initially said.
However, under cross-examination by defence lawyer Ryan Amy, Jalloh said Haiart may have looked like someone he had met previously, and that Haiart had expressed an interest to him that night about where he could "get some girls."
Jalloh also told court that police transcripts of interviews they conducted with him after the shooting are not accurate.
He also said the McGee Street house had a reputation on the street as being a drug house.
At times, Jalloh appeared confrontational during his testimony. When defence lawyer Greg Brodsky asked him to speak up so he could hear clearly, Jalloh shot back: "I got to talk to the jury — I don't got to talk to you."
I don't know if this witness is credible, as he gave conflicting testimony in court. Which side of his story do you believe? If he is lying now, could he have lied at another point during his testimony? These are some valid questions. I think it will be very difficult for the Crown to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cansanay INTENDED to murder Haiart and intended to attempt to murder Haiart's friend and the two rival gang members. Personally, I don't think he intended to murder Haiart, because the bullets were meant for the other gang members, not him. I think at this point, I would be leaning towards a guilty verdict of manslaughter for Haiart (where intent is not necessary) and two counts of attempted murder (for the rival gang members).
The defence will likely attempt to utilize a self-defence claim, which I believe, is valid. The rival gang members had engaged in a "shootout" with Cansanay the night before the murder and hours prior to the murder, had attempted to firebomb his home, which was unsuccessful. It's only reasonable that he would fear for his life, when these same gang members showed up outside his home once again. I would argue that he didn't know what they were going to do next and attempted to shoot at them, in order to protect himself.
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