When two Ontario Provincial Cops walked into Alain Bellefeuille’s home, one calling his title and saying they had been police, Bellefeuille by no means heard it, he testified at his homicide trial Thursday.
“If I knew they had been police, I might’ve been relieved,” he stated in French of the occasions that passed off Might 11, 2023 in Bourget, Ont.
“I would’ve been confused, however I would not have taken them to be a menace.”
As an alternative he was panicked, he stated, and his heartbeat was ringing in his ears. Somebody was in his home at 2:30 a.m., he noticed they had been holding one thing metallic that appeared like a handgun, and he thought he would possibly die.
His response, he stated, was to begin firing the high-calibre, semi-automatic sport taking pictures rifle he saved on the foot of his mattress in violation of gun security laws.
It was a authorized firearm he had a sound licence for, however it was geared up with an unlawful journal he’d modified in order that it might maintain greater than 20 rounds as a substitute of the permitted 5.
There was nothing he needed to do to get the gun prepared to fireplace, Bellefeuille stated. The protection was off, and a spherical was already within the chamber.
He informed court docket he thinks he fired 10 occasions via his bed room wall, primarily based on video footage from Sgt. Eric Mueller’s body-worn digital camera.
Emotional day in court docket
Bellefeuille pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide and two counts of tried homicide on the outset of his bilingual trial in Superior Court docket in L’Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, in March.
All his testimony is being given in French beneath questioning by co-defence counsel Biagio Del Greco, additionally in French.
It is an admitted truth that Bellefeuille killed Mueller, critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon and wounded Const. François Gamache-Asselin when he shot at them.
In query is what he was pondering and when, in addition to what his intentions had been.
It was an emotional day within the courtroom, and Bellefeuille appeared to cry at occasions. On either side of the practically full public gallery, a few of his kinfolk and supporters — in addition to these of the OPP officers and their colleagues — had been additionally generally in tears.
‘I noticed the individual on the bottom was a police officer’
After Bellefeuille’s first volley of pictures, about half a minute handed with no gunfire.
Bellefeuille informed court docket he hoped the menace was over, however then two pictures had been fired in his path. He felt like a sitting duck, he stated, and when he noticed a lightweight transfer in the lounge, he fired towards it twice.
He noticed somebody on the ground of the mudroom and moved towards them. Then he noticed a lightweight outdoors, and he thought it was somebody armed so he fired at them, he testified.
Then Bellefeuille appeared on the individual on the bottom and realized it was an officer.
“Instantly I am in shock. I do not perceive what’s taking place, the how, the why,” he stated in French.
“I used to be in a nightmare. I believed I used to be in a house invasion after which I spotted I shot a police officer.”
‘I haven’t got management over my feelings’
When he crouched over Mueller and stated, “You f–ked with the flawed motherf–ker, man … Shoulda by no means broke into my home. Sorry about that,” Bellefeuille informed court docket he was speaking to himself, and that he wasn’t pondering.
Requested what he was sorry about, Bellefeuille stated it was “for what occurred,” including that he was in shock.
He stated he wished to disarm Mueller, however when he noticed that the officer’s handgun was nonetheless in its holster, he left it there. Bellefeuille took off the body-worn digital camera as a result of he did not wish to be recorded.
Requested why, he stated, “I do not know. I am unsure why.”
“What had been you feeling?” Del Greco requested in French.
“I am nonetheless in shock and panic. I haven’t got management of my feelings at this level,” Bellefuille testified.
He fired extra pictures outdoors, he stated, as a result of he thought police would possibly hold firing at him and he wished to purchase himself a while to assume. He stated he fired under a lightweight that seemed to be connected to a car, and that he could not see police insignia on the automobile as a result of the sunshine was blinding him.
Del Greco requested who Bellefeuille thought was outdoors, after he’d seen the police insignia on Mueller’s vest.
“It needed to be police,” Bellefeuille informed court docket.
He known as 911, and he appeared to cry on the stand when audio of paramedics arriving was performed. He informed the paramedics the officer was nonetheless respiration and to rush up, and he testified that he remembered saying, “Cling in there, buddy,” and “Do not die, buddy.”
After audio of his dramatic arrest by Const. Ionut Mihuta was played, Bellefeuille testified that he understood the officer’s emotional response, including that he wasn’t in his proper thoughts both.
He stated he by no means wished to kill anybody, particularly a police officer, and that they might have had a household.
Bellefeuille additionally testified he has nothing in opposition to police and was adamant he did not know he was taking pictures at them. Being chargeable for Mueller’s dying and Lauzon’s critical accidents is a serious weight on his coronary heart, he testified, and he would at all times be affected by it, whatever the trial’s consequence.
Cross examination by assistant Crown lawyer Francois Dulude begins Friday.
Nervous and anxious
Bellefeuille started his testimony Thursday morning, saying he was nervous and anxious to be talking in entrance of so many individuals after his time in custody.
He stated his father and uncle had been hunters, and that his father and mates had taught him to shoot. He purchased the SKS rifle for sports activities taking pictures at targets on gun ranges and within the woods, and stated the weapon wasn’t allowed for looking.
By 2023 he’d stopped sports activities taking pictures however saved the rifle strictly to guard himself and the home he was renting, he stated. He was resulting from transfer out of on the finish of Might that yr.
It was a giant gun able to doing quite a lot of injury and scaring folks by making a “sufficiently big bang.”
He purchased a linear compensator to assist the rifle shoot extra precisely at lengthy vary. He added after-market rails and a scope with magnification and illuminated cross hairs with adjustable brightness. The scope had no evening imaginative and prescient functionality.
Made magazines unlawful in case of emergency
He had final loaded the gun greater than a yr earlier, protecting it on the foot of his mattress for fast entry. Requested by Del Greco if he knew that was in opposition to protected storage guidelines, Bellefeuille stated he took the danger as a result of he lived alone, had few guests and “the hazard was very small that something would occur.”
A pal and his associate had been held at gunpoint, tied to chairs and crushed throughout a house invasion in Kemptville, Ont., in 2007 or 2008, and it made Bellefeuille assume it might occur to him, particularly in his rural house. His house and car had been robbed in Gatineau, Que., and in North Gower in rural Ottawa, he stated.
He stated he modified the magazines for ease of entry, if mandatory. “In an emergency scenario I would not have time to reload the gun, so that’s the reason I modified the journal, to have extra capability. I had greater than $10,000 in money in my home on Might 10, 2023.”
He additionally testified that he purchased a motion-activated gentle for his porch about two or three years earlier than the taking pictures. In court docket, he learn a Residence Depot product itemizing for a porch gentle he stated appeared precisely the identical, which might detect movement throughout 150 levels and as much as 9 metres away.
The day earlier than the taking pictures
After ending work at a residence in Orléans on Might 10, 2023, Bellefeuille cashed a cheque, went to a ironmongery store, then went to get fuel and 10 to 12 cans of Jack Daniel’s whiskey combined with soda. Court docket was proven a photograph of his kitchen exhibiting two flat containers of empty cans of the drink.
After working errands and speaking to folks at his new residence about his pending transfer, Bellefeuille drank with a pal after which at house. He consumed about 10 drinks between 8 p.m. and a pair of a.m. — a traditional quantity for him, he testified.
He went to mattress in his work garments at about 2 a.m. and fell asleep instantly — additionally a traditional prevalence for him when he drinks and is exhausted, Bellefeuille stated. Subsequent got here the deadly encounter.
Video from Mueller’s body-worn digital camera performed in court docket confirmed Lauzon repeatedly knocking on the again door and window of the home.
Bellefeuille testified that the very first thing he heard was his canine barking, adopted by what he described as extra of a “banging” sound than a knocking. He did not hear voices, however noticed what appeared like a flashlight.
“Instantly I believed it was an intruder who was attempting to knock down my again door. It was 2:30 within the morning, no one introduced themselves, no one warned me or known as me,” he stated in French.
He didn’t look outdoors, he informed court docket.
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