Trial begins for fatal shooting of police officer during raid

CTV is reporting that "The trial for the man accused of killing RCMP Const. Rick O’Brien during an exchange of gunfire at a Coquitlam condo is now underway in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. Nicholas Bellemare, the defendant, was also shot that day."

"The court heard O’Brien and his Ridge Meadows RCMP colleagues were executing drug warrants at three different locations, all related to the same investigation, on Sept. 22, 2023. At the Coquitlam condo, O’Brien was the lead officer responsible for making entry into the 22nd floor unit with a battering ram.

"According to the Crown, after breaching the door he was shot almost immediately with a prohibited AR-15-style rifle. A second officer was also injured by gunfire, then a third officer shot Bellemare in the forearm."

"The Crown said the trial will hinge on three key questions: Did Bellemare know O’Brien was a police officer when he allegedly shot him? Did Bellemare intend to kill Const. O’Brien? And was Bellemare acting in self-defence?"

This is indeed tragic. He obviously was not acting in self defense. The question is, did he know it was the police or did he think it was a drug rip? 

It is highly unusual for drug dealers to shoot the police given the laxed laws for drug trafficking. It brings us to the no knock search warrant. Did the police announce it was them or not? Sometimes people pretend to be the police in home invasions. 

No knock search warrants are common and are very dangerous. A neighbour testified that "Through the peephole of his door, he saw police officers in the hallway, up to an hour before he heard around seven to 10 shots fired."

That's pretty strange and would definitely imply the suspect knew it was the police. Yet the woman a responding officer saw struggling with the suspect was a plain clothes police officer. 

In a bizarre twist CTV reported that "The court heard the condo was rented by a man named Christopher Michael Brett Perry. According to the agreed statement of facts, Bellemare was just 15 years old when he met Perry online. Perry was then 38 years old—and the Crown said around that time, police investigated Perry for possible child luring in relation to his interactions with Bellemare. No charges came of that investigation."

It's just so tragic when you see these pictures of police officers killed in duty they look like such clean cut good people. A constant reminder that police officers do risk their lives for the public they are commissioned to protect.