Shooting victim credits video game for ability to identify gun

The witness testified on the morning of the incident, he was at a house on Branion Drive drinking with the accused. However what started as a friendly social gathering, turned tense when the victim began getting questioned about his 17-year-old “baby mama.”

Soon after, he claims Lafond instructed Abbott to retrieve a gun from the car and when he had the gun in hand, Lafond then allegedly pointed it at the victim’s face.

“He was threatening to kill me,” the man recalled.

Anticipating something was going happen, the man explained he armed himself with a pair of scissors and after knocking the raised gun to the roof, where it fired, then proceeded to fight with Lafond and stab him multiple times.

It was during this struggle that Pratt allegedly came up behind the victim and punching him in the jaw before grabbing the gun and sticking the barrel into the back of his head.

The witness explained he turned his head, which the bullet grazed. He said he wrestled with the two men and a third unidentified man before making his way to the back door and escaping.

The man, who was not wearing shoes and ran through the snow, found help at a neighbour’s house and called an ambulance.

When asked by Crown lawyer Kristen Hubbard to describe the gun, he said it was about the size of his forearm. He was also asked how he specifically knew it was an M-16 – 22 LR assault rifle with no stock.

“I play Call of Duty a lot,” he replied.

The man’s knowledge of the gun used was later brought up again when he was cross-examined by Lafond’s lawyer Loree Richardson. He further explained the game is very detailed, and he also denied personally owning or having a gun license.

The witness, who acknowledged leaving out certain details when he spoke to police, confirmed for Richardson he was only able to identify Lafond after looking at his Facebook page, and also acknowledged his memory was a bit blurry on a few specific details.

“I just remember who shot me, who tried to shoot me,” he said.

At the time of the incident the witness said he was 6/10 with respect to intoxication and admitted to still being about a 2/10 and concussed when he gave a statement to police abut 12 hours later.

Both Pratt’s lawyer Michelle Caron and Abbott’s lawyer Chris Koban both further questioned his memory of the events and he in turn insisted he knew who was behind him.

“I am 100 per cent sure it was Gage,” he said, dismissing a suggestion that Pratt wasn’t in the house.

Caron, who raised the possibility the gun actually belonged to the witness and that it was the unidentified stranger who actually shot him, repeatedly asked him how it could be that he could look back and see Pratt holding a gun, all while being in the midst of a heated struggle and his head buried in Lafond’s chest area.

Appearing somewhat defensive, the man demonstrated with his hand and body how he was able to feel the butt of a gun pressed against his head and how the angle allowed him to see to who had their finger on the trigger.

Koban, who noted the witness testified to another woman being in the house, asked if it was possible she was the one who brought the gun in, instead of Abbott.

“No it isn’t,” the man replied.

About a week after the shooting incident, Lafond was arrested after a standoff with police.

The trial has been adjourned to January for continuation.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell

by Nigel Maxwell

Shooting victim credits video game for ability to identify gun

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