Skip to content

SUV carrying Lower Mainland gangsters riddled with bullet holes

38 bullets were fired into the Porsche Cayenne
web1_Bacon-3

There was no safe space within the SUV that became Kelowna’s most notorious crime scene Aug. 14, 2011.

As week three of the trial looking into the murder of Red Scorpion gang leader Jonathan Bacon and the attempted murder of four others got underway, Daisy Wong, a forensic firearms expert with the RCMP, showed the court images of the Porsche Cayenne in the aftermath of the shooting.

Wong said there were 38 bullet entry points on the SUV, and one bullet hole that exited.

Although the one bullet could have been fired from within the vehicle Wong offered another possible reason.

“The front passenger window was almost completely rolled down and a portion of the rear passenger window was rolled down,” she said.

“A bullet could have originated from those areas.”

Bullets sliced right through the SUV, moving in various directions. Some were lodged within the SUV and others shot through it.

Rods Wong placed in various holes during her investigation showed how bullets criss-crossed right through the area that passengers were seated.

Gang member Larry Amero was in the driver seat, Bacon was in the front passenger seat, James Riach was in the rear driver side passenger seat, Lyndsey Black was in the rear side passenger seat and Leah Hadden-Watts was in the rear middle seat.

Bacon died from his gunshot wounds, Hadden-Watts was shot in the neck and rendered a paraplegic, Amero was shot in the face, wrist and chest and Black was shot through both upper legs.

Riach escaped injury.

All of this carnage occurred while every participant in the scene was in motion, said Wong, who saw surveillance footage of the scene before she conducted her investigation.

Some of that footage has also been shown in court. It highlights the chaos of the scene. Two men have been seen running toward the Porsche as it rolled to a stop to the right of the Delta Grand property as shots were fired.

“It helped me realize that we very much had a dynamic scene … there was movement of the objects being shot as well as moment of the firearms involved,” Wong told Justice Allan Betton.

On her second day of testimony Wong also told the court about her examination of the guns and shell casings, which she inspected at different times.

The shell casings she inspected in September and from what she could see, there were three guns — two rifles and one 9mm Luger. The majority of the shell casings found came from one of the two rifles. Around eight casings belonged to another and then there were around 10 more from a Luger.

The guns didn’t show up until Nov. 1, 2011, when a bobcat driver doing landscape on a property on Highland Road North stumbled upon them, the court heard earlier in the week.

Wong inspected the gun at that time and noted that one of them was stuck. The poor functioning of the firearm, she said, wasn’t due to the months it had spent outside in a juniper bush. That caused surface rust, not any damage to the interior of the weapon.

Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones are charged with the first degree murder of Bacon, the attempted murder of Riach, Amero, Hadden-Watts and Black and multiple firearm offences.

On May 29 they each pleaded not guilty to all counts. They have been in custody since their 2013 arrest.

For past stories on this case click here.


 

@KelownaNewsKat
kmichaels@kelownacapnews.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.