Accused told investigator he heard ‘pop’ at bush party and then ran

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London police Det. Jim MacLachlan looked across the desk at Carlos Guerra Guerra and asked if he wanted to try to explain what happened in the bush again.

The officer had been interviewing Guerra Guerra for more than an hour after going to his mother’s home with two search warrants, one to search Guerra Guerra’s Dodge Journey and the other a general search warrant to seize his cellphone that Guerra Guerra surrendered without incident.

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“Officer, I’ve told you everything I could,” Guerra Guerra said.

Guerra Guerra had been co-operative, even congenial, while speaking to the detective on Aug. 4, 2021, three days after Western University student Josue Silva was shot to death. And in his first two hours of speaking to the officer, which was shown to the jury at the Superior Court second-degree murder trial on Wednesday, he talked about his mother, his tattoos, his love of music and that he had nothing to do with the shooting.

MacLachlan told him police had spoken to many people who had been at the southwest London bush bash, including some who said they saw people arrive at the party “looking for someone by the name of Logan.”

“And there’s a reason why we’re coming to speak to you…. Is there anything you’ve left out?” MacLachlan said.

“No sir, I’ve told you everything I need to from this end,” Guerra Guerra said.

This was the first time the jury has seen a videotaped police statement at the lengthy trial that began more than four weeks ago. Guerra Guerra, 23, and Emily Altmann, 22, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Silva, 18, and not guilty to assault with a weapon of Logan Marshall.

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The jury already has heard about 100 young people had attended the bush bash in a wooded area north of Pack Road near Grand Oak Cross on July 31, 2021. Witnesses have described a loud argument between Altmann and Isabella Restrepo, after a drink was thrown in the direction of Altmann and her friends.

Marshall, then a boyfriend of Restrepo, stepped in and Altmann and her group left. Witnesses said Altmann was angry, went back to her car and called someone to help settle the score.

The jury has seen a video of Guerra Guerra’s vehicle arriving at the party before 1 a.m. to meet Altmann and her friends. Two masked males dressed in dark clothing got out of the vehicle and went into the bush with Altmann and her friends just before the shooting. Several people, including Silva, were hiding in the woods after they were warned about people looking for them.

The entire interview Guerra Guerra had with MacLachlan was voluntary and before he was charged with anything. He told MacLachlan at the beginning of the interview he “smokes a lot of weed,” so his memory isn’t that sharp, but he recalled being with Dylan Schaap, Schaap’s girlfriend and Kaiah Edmonds in a neighbourhood near Fanshawe College before receiving a call from a “very frantic” Altmann.

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He said he thought Altmann had been drinking and she was difficult to understand. He described her as someone he met through a mutual friend and that Altmann was “special to me.”

She said a group of people had been harassing her and “she wanted me to come and get her out of a situation.”

“I had to make sure she was safe, 100 per cent,” he said. “I was mostly concerned with her wellbeing.”

She shared her location on Snapchat and Guerra Guerra said the four of them drove to meet her. Guerra Guerra said he spotted Altmann on the road. He and the others got out of the vehicle. “She said, ‘I need to go back into the forest because I think I dropped something,’” Guerra Guerra told the detective.

Guerra Guerra, who told MacLachlan he was wearing an all-black track suit and a black COVID mask, said he wouldn’t let her go back to the party by herself. They all went down the path into the party where he and Schaap were “minding (their) business” near the bonfire where there were about six separate groups of people mingling.

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No one had been giving them any problems. After about five or 10 minutes, people were starting to get loud, he said and “I didn’t like the energy of the environment.” He said to Schaap that they should leave.

As they were leaving the party and walking out using the main path, all of a sudden, “people came out of the bushes,” Guerra Guerra said, and began taunting Altmann about “oh you think you’re sick” and “oh you’re think you’re tough” by bringing Guerra Guerra and the rest to the party.

A fight broke out between groups of young men, he said. “I don’t even know what is going on. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I hear a pop and I just ran. I thought it was like, a firework or something. But I’m not going to stick around and find out.”

He said before the pop, he thought maybe “10, 12 maybe 15 people” came out of the bushes. Guerra Guerra said only saw “guys.”

But they never touched Guerra Guerra and his friends, he said. “As soon as we saw the situation unfolding, we were literally stepping back and making sure we were putting distance between us and them.”

Guerra Guerra said he never saw any weapons and never was personally threatened. He suggested to MacLachan some of them were walking around with “liquor bottles” in their hands.

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Guerra Guerra said all of them ran out of the woods and he raced to his car on the road. He couldn’t see Altmann. He sent her messages to make sure she was safe and drove his friends home.

He didn’t find out about Silva’s death until reading a Free Press article on Facebook. “I didn’t know what to think. I was sad for the family, I prayed for them. I’ve been praying for them, actually, every single night since it happened,” he said to MacLachlan.

MacLachlan told Guerra Guerra witnesses had told police Altmann had been in an argument and she would “be back with some people.”

He told Guerra Guerra people saw him arrive and said he was looking for “Logan.”

“You have an opportunity now to explain how you become involved in that fight,” MacLachlan said.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve told you everything that I could,” Guerra Guerra said.

The rest of the police statement is expected to be played for the jury Wednesday.

jsims@postmedia.com

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