‘Innocent joke’ preceded fatal gunshot at large bush party: Witness

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While hiding in the bushes in the darkness, they heard the pop.

Then, everywhere there was chaos.

Rachel Johnson, testifying Tuesday at the second-degree murder trial of Emily Altmann, 22, and Carlos Guerra Guerra, 23, described the scene at a southwest London bush party after a gunshot rang out and Western University student Josue Silva, 18, was fatally wounded.

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Johnson, 21, had a close-up view to the events that led to the shooting and the aftermath on July 31, 2021. She was at the party with a group of high school friends and her best friend Isabella Restrepo, with whom she was hiding after news filtered into the party that “people (are) coming and we have to leave.”

She and Restrepo were the first to find Silva on the ground, heaving and wheezing, and their friend, Matt Swan, near Silva, in shock.

“I remember running down the path for a short distance and seeing Josue struggling to breath,” Johnson said during questioning by assistant Crown attorney Kristina Mildred. “When I initially heard the pop noise, I had believed it was firework.

I was under the impression that someone had injured Josue with a firework. . . . A lot of people running around leaving or trying to find their friends. I remember asking people to call 911.”

She added: “It was very scary and no one had really known what had happened. . . . A lot of people were focused on finding their friends and getting out of there.”

She said pulled up Silva’s shirt to see the bullet hole in his back. She said she’d never heard a gunshot before.

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Both Altmann and Guerra Guerra have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and not guilty to assault with a weapon, namely a blunt object, on Logan Marshall, who was Restrepo’s boyfriend at the time.

For the hour or so before the gunshot, it had been a typical mid-summer bash with about 100 attendees at the clearing off Pack Road, organized to celebrate the birthday of one of Johnson’s friends. She said through Mildred that she was with Restrepo when Restrepo threw an open beverage can.

Johnson said she’d seen people pull the prank at bush parties before – someone would find a can and throw it, hoping whatever drink was left in it would splash all over people. But this was their first time she saw Restrepo throw one and was sure that she was aiming at group of her friends and specifically Ryan Burke, one of their buddies.

“I thought it was an innocent joke,” she said.

Johnson testified that she didn’t see where the can landed or where the contents flew, but Burke confirmed to them in a conversation by the bonfire that he was hit. Five minutes later, a woman Johnson said she didn’t know, but is now identified before the Superior Court jury as Lina Latif, walked up to Restrepo “and asked if she is the girl throwing cans.”

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Restrepo confirmed that she was. Latif was then joined by two women, one of them, Johnson said, was Altmann, a young woman she had only seen on social media. She said she later learned that they were at the party with Jamie Falardeau, a former friend of Johnson’s from high school.

She said she had “negative” feelings about Falardeau and wasn’t sure why she and her friends were there.

Latif accused Restrepo of throwing the can at her boyfriend. Johnson said Burke told the women the can hit him.

Altmann and Latif, Johnson said, began yelling at Restrepo, saying: “You’re such a little (expletive). You’re such a little (expletive). You’re such a little girl. You don’t even know who you are talking to.”

She remembered Restrepo chucking and saying: “what do I even say to them?” And she recalled Restrepo turning back to them. “I am a little (expletive),” she said, with no apology.

Marshall, Silva and other male friends stepped in. She heard Marshall say, “Who is pressing up on Isa?” and the argument continued.

Johnson heard one of the women say to the young men: “My brother-in-law would (expletive) up,” to the young men.”

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Johnson and Restrepo stepped back. She testified she called her boyfriend at the time to tell him what happened. After the phone call at 12:30 a.m., Altman, Latif, Falardeau and their group were gone.

The party returned to normal.

Not long later, Marshall told Johnson and Restrepo that someone had texted him saying “there were people coming to the bush party looking for us and we had to leave.”

Johnson said she and Restrepo followed Marshall, Silva and Swan further into the trees. Marshall seemed concerned, Johnson said, but she and Restrepo didn’t think the threat was dangerous.

“My belief was that if someone was coming, they maximum just wanted to have a fight with one of the guys,” she said.

A friend contacted Marshall by phone to say someone had pulled a machete on him. That changed everyone’s mood. Johnson said she didn’t see any weapons on her friends.

“At this point we all wanted to leave,” she said. “Josue made a point he didn’t want to leave the party without going back and collecting his friends.”

Marshall received a text saying the main path was safe. He, Silva and Swan told the young women to stay put. Five minutes later, they heard the pop.

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Johnson described the aftermath: trying to help SIlva, the police and paramedics arriving, giving a statement to police at the scene, taking Marshall to hospital, and finding out Silva “didn’t make it.”

Earlier Tuesday, Josh Dickie, the witness who described contacting Marshall after seeing two men dressed all in black arrive at the party, was accused in cross-examination by Altmann’s defence lawyer Nathan Gorham of being “dishonest” that he saw a “sword” on one of the men.

Gorham gave more context to where the defence case is going, asserting that Silva and Marshall were part of “the popular group.”

“You, like your friends, don’t really care about the truth. You and your friends, are trying to make good people look like bad people,” Gorham said.

Said Dickie: “I’m just telling you what I saw.”

The trial continues on Wednesday.

jsims@postmedia.com

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