Richard Bain murder trial: Stagehand tells jury he heard Denis Blanchette scream

Elias Ames-Bull testified in the Richard Bain murder trial that when he first heard a bang and saw the suspect holding a firearm, he thought it might have been a pellet gun. Then he saw the blood. 

Ames-Bull was one of several technicians who witnessed the shooting at the Parti Québécois election-night victory party who took the stand Monday.

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He said he had been waiting with a group of roughly ten or so technicians on the back steps of the Metropolis that night, telling the court that around midnight he tipped his head down to light a cigarette, looked back up and heard a shot ring out.

"I felt something brushing past my head and I looked, and I saw the suspect holding the weapon," he testified.

I heard a scream and I saw the blood.- Elias Ames-Bull, technician

"At first I thought it was a practical joke because I didn't think stuff like that could really happen."

But then, he said, he saw the blood.

"I looked towards Denis Blanchette because I heard a scream, and I saw the blood and that's it."

​Bain, 65, is accused of murdering Blanchette, a lighting technician. He's also accused of three counts of attempted murder, as well as arson and possession of an incendiary device for the attack on Sept. 4, 2012 at the Metropolis theatre.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

'I had blood on my face'

Several of the stagehands told the court it wasn't until they escaped to safety in nearby bars or restaurants that they realized they had blood on them.

"We regrouped, and that's when someone told me I had blood on my face, and I realized it was not my blood," Benoit Belhumeur told the court on Monday. 

He said that's when they decided to do a head count to see who was missing. 

​Detonation, lots of smoke

The jury also heard from another stagehand, Benoit Gromko, who said he saw his colleague Dave Courage fall down beside him after hearing a loud bang.

"He was on the ground, screaming ... It happened quickly," Gromko told the court. 

Courage was seriously injured but survived. 

Gromko testified that he was chatting with his colleagues on the back steps of the theatre around midnight, waiting to go inside and take down the lighting, when he heard what he thought was a flash grenade.

"We were chatting a bit, talking about the outcome of the election that night … Then we heard a detonation followed by a lot of smoke,"  the jury heard.

"People were trying to get inside. I saw Dave [Courage] who was right next to me fall to the ground." 

Several of Monday's witnesses described the shooter as a white male, who was wearing a ski mask. Several of them also testified to seeing him struggle with the firearm at one point, as it it was jammed or there was some sort of problem. 

Technician saw bald man drive by 3 times

Earlier in the day, the jury also heard testimony from a technician who was working earlier the day of the shooting.

Patrick Magnan, an audio-visual technician, testified that he recalled seeing a bald man wearing glasses driving a black Yukon pass by the Metropolis theatre three times within the span of an hour that afternoon.

Magnan told the jury that as he waited outside the theatre to set up a large screen, he saw a black, suburban-style vehicle pass by the Metropolis three times between approximately 5:30 p.m. and and 6:30 p.m.

The driver inside appeared to be examining the front entrance of the Metropolis, Magnan testified. 

The witness added that he's fond of suburban-style vehicles, and the black Yukon caught his eye. He told the jury he looked inside to catch a glimpse of the driver. 

"I looked into the vehicle, and I saw that it was a person between 50 and 60 years old," Magnan said.

He said the driver was bald and wearing glasses.

Defence presses witness about discrepancies

Alan Guttman, Bain's lawyer, questioned the Crown's witnesses about their timelines and how clearly they were thinking that night. 

During cross-examination, Guttman asked whether the witnesses saw the shooter's eyes, whether they recognized the photo of the blue bathrobe that had been entered into evidence and whether they could say for certain if the long gun photographed by police was the gun they saw that night.

He also asked them what the weather was like that evening. One witness said with certainty that it had been raining, while others said that it was warm out, and it wasn't raining. 

Guttman honed in on Ames-Bull, who first told police that he heard two shots that night, and it wasn't until he met with police again, several days later, that he corrected that statement, saying he'd only heard one shot.

Guttman pressed Ames-Bull over and over again about the discrepancies, asking why he didn't phone police immediately when he realized he made a mistake. 

"I was in a state of shock," Ames-Bull told the jury. "I thought about the event a lot. I was playing this back in my head over and over, and when I first realized that it might not have been two shots, my first thought was not to call police," he said.

The trial is expected to last between six and eight weeks.