Trial hears evidence of bullet hole in door

A Brandon police identification officer testified on Tuesday that no bullet was recovered from a bathroom door that a man allegedly shot at while his ex-girlfriend was hiding behind it.

“We just didn’t think it was necessary … What we’d seen was consistent with the information we had, so we were satisfied,” Const. Travis Foster testified on the second day of a scheduled four-day trial in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench.

The 23-year-old accused faces charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, assault, and possession of a firearm and ammunition while prohibited.

On the first day of trial, the alleged victim testified that she and the accused got into an argument on March 27, 2023, during which she went into the bathroom and locked the door.

She told the court the man was yelling and banging on the door. After she called 911 and the accused left the residence, she said she saw what appeared to be a bullet hole in the bathroom door and later found several shell casings.

While she testified that she didn’t hear or smell a gunshot, she believed the accused shot at the door with a long gun she had seen him use before. She said he used it to shoot her mattress in the past.

A publication ban on any information that could identify the alleged victim was ordered after the Crown requested it on the second day of trial. The Sun is not naming the accused to ensure the ban is not breached.

Foster said he has been a member of BPS for 20 years, spending roughly 10 of those on the forensic identification team. He and another officer executed a search warrant on the apartment where the alleged shooting took place to gather evidence.

“You could see on the exterior of the bathroom door that there was a small circular hole in the door. The hole did not penetrate through to the interior side of the bathroom door,” he said, later noting that the hole was roughly five to six millimetres in size and almost five feet from the ground.

He said the hole was consistent with a gunshot from the .22-calibre rifle, which police seized from the accused’s belongings.

Defence lawyer Philip Sieklicki asked whether a bullet was retrieved from the door.

Foster said he did not retrieve a bullet. In order to do so, he said, he would have had to “completely destroy the door” and didn’t want to put that financial burden on the woman.

Sieklicki also asked if there would be a loud noise or smell from the gun being fired.

Foster said he suspected there would be a smell but didn’t give a firm answer about sound, as he said different barrel lengths and environments could impact the volume.

Foster also testified that it’s unusual that a shot from a close distance would not go completely through the door, but it could have been due to a misfire.

“So, apart from the hole in the door itself, there was no physical evidence on the door linking the firearm to the door, correct?” Sieklicki asked.

Foster responded by saying that from the officers’ observations, the hole was caused by the gun.

Foster said he also photographed the mattress, which had five separate holes with black around them. He said he took each layer off the mattress and photographed the holes, which he said appeared to go through the mattress and into the carpet.

He said no bullets were retrieved from the floor because, like the door, they would have had to remove the carpet.

Const. Erin Mahoney also testified. She was involved in searching the accused’s belongings, which were at his sister’s residence.

She went over the items she and her partner photographed, which included a .22-calibre rifle, two CO2 handguns, two canisters of bear spray and a ballistic vest.

The trial continues.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com