Dramatic video footage highlighted the start of a trial in Vancouver Supreme Court Thursday, May 6 for Linda Lorraine Howe, the woman accused in the Christenson Village care home shooting.
The video footage showed Howe, 40 at the time, shooting facilities manager Kenn Perrier with a rifle when he opened the door of her suite to serve an eviction, on March 31, 2009. The scenes were captured on Howe's own video system.
The court heard that Howe subsequently fired at Perrier's fleeing companions, client services manager Liz Dutton and social worker Pat Barber, before carjacking a Ford Mustang being driven by salesman Spencer Williams. Howe was herself detained "with force" by Sunshine Coast RCMP officers in the parking lot, being shot herself.
The trial opened with Howe denying eight charges relating to the incident: three counts of attempted murder with a firearm, three more of pointing a firearm at an individual, one of robbing Williams, and using a firearm in the commission of an offence. She admitted to three counts of unauthorized possession of firearms.
Defence lawyer James Bahen said he was not going to dispute events, as the issue was "whether Miss Howe possessed the specific intent to be capable of pre-meditated murder," considering her "pre-existing mental condition" and consumption of alcohol and medications.
"I do not anticipate her mental disorder eliminating responsibility. It's a trial of intent," Bahen said.
Taking the witness stand, Perrier said Howe had been admitted to the assisted living part of the facility in December 2006 after suffering a brain injury in a motor vehicle accident, even though "most of the residents were in their 80s" and they were "not equipped to deal with mental health issues at the site."
He detailed the various letters he'd delivered to Howe between January and March about her upcoming eviction. Issues included her room being deemed a fire hazard by Gibsons firefighters, the video surveillance system she had installed there, difficulties with staff and that Howe had "suggested on numerous occasions that she was capable of hurting people."
At 10 a.m. on the morning of the eviction, Perrier and Dutton realized Howe had changed the lock on her suite. They returned at noon with a locksmith, who drilled it out, after which Perrier greeted Howe and offered to help move her things out.
Perrier returned with Dutton, maintenance man Harry Brady and Howe's social worker Barber at 4 p.m., the agreed time for the eviction.
"I opened the door of her suite," said Perrier, "and saw she was aiming a gun at me, and she shot. I fell backwards out into the hallway. I had been shot through the arm and the abdomen.
"It takes a couple of seconds to register, but I immediately felt heat and pressure in my abdomen, and saw the blood. I made my way up the hallway. I do not remember parts of it. I think I was all over the place. I was holding my side. I was up against the handrail some of the time, and I believe I went down on my knees a couple of times. I was bleeding profusely.
"I looked back and saw Linda. I saw her aiming a rifle at me, standing just outside her suite in the hallway. Harry Brady yelled at me to get my head back because she was aiming the gun at me."
Perrier darted into another suite, where he called his wife and then Dutton to tell them where he was. By this point he was "feeling nauseous, covered in blood and having trouble breathing."
Prosecutor Richard Cairns detailed that Howe fired a single bullet from a .303 Lee Enfield rifle at Perrier, which pierced his right forearm and entered his abdomen, cutting through his liver before becoming lodged in back muscles. After a year of surgery, Perrier is most of the way to regaining full use of his fingers.
He also detailed that Howe fired at Dutton and Barber outside of the building, with police subsequently doing laser trajectory examination on an "elongated divot" in the grass where the bullet lodged.
Cairns said when Howe was arrested her possessions included the rifle and a 7mm Bersa semi-automatic handgun in a holster, ammunition for both, two "combat knives," dog spray, an ice pick, hatchet, slingshot with ball bearings, tools, prybar, alcohol and camping equipment.
A subsequent police search of her suite yielded an additional riffle, a lever action Winchester .30-.30, two bows with arrows and the video system - on which they viewed the shooting.
The case is expected to run until Friday, May 14.
