Bathurst police officer testifies Michel Vienneau's car hit him twice before shooting

Bathurst Police Force Const. Patrick Bulger says he was hit twice by a car driven by Michel Vienneau before the man was fatally shot in Bathurst almost five years ago. 

"At that point, I was afraid to die, I was afraid for my life," Bulger said, describing being pinned against a snowbank while under the bumper of Vienneau's white Chevrolet Cruze. 

Bulger and Const. Mathieu Boudreau attempted to intercept Vienneau at the Bathurst train station on Jan. 12, 2015, based on tips they were trafficking drugs. The tips turned out to be false. 

Bulger was testifying at a discipline hearing for him and Boudreau that resumed Monday. 

Vienneau, a 51-year-old Tracadie businessman, and his fiancée, Annick Basque, were returning on the train from a weekend trip to Montreal to watch a hockey game. 

Bulger testified he was the passenger in an unmarked Pontiac G6 driven by Boudreau when Vienneau arrived on the train. They watched him and Basque place bags in the trunk of the Cruze and brush snow off the car. Then Vienneau began to back up to leave. 

Bulger said that's when he gave an order over the police radio for other officers to move in. Bulger said he pulled his badge out from under his hoodie and stepped out of the G6. 

But he said the Cruze then hit the G6 and kept moving. 

"The car turned toward me, not stopping," Bulger said. He testified he yelled "Police, police, stop." He was the first to testify that the word "police" was yelled. 

"At one point, he hit my left knee," Bulger said. He described putting his hands on the car to maintain his balance and said he kept backing up as the car moved toward him. When he backed up against a snowbank, the Cruze hit him again and he was then partially under its bumper. 

That's when he said he was afraid to die as the car's tires were still spinning.

Bulger says he then heard several bangs. At that point, he fired once at the rear tire of the car to try to stop it. 

Bulger, 42, has been a police officer since 2007. Until 2013, he was a general duty police officer and was later transferred to the drug unit in Bathurst.

He was asked several times whether he or anyone else had checked Canadian Police Information Centre, a police database, for Vienneau or Basque's name before leaving the police station. 

He said he didn't do it and said such checks wouldn't necessarily come up with a result. 

Lawyer Joël Michaud is the arbitrator appointed to hear the case. Michaud asked Bulger if he ever wondered about the sequence and if there were things that could've been done differently.

"The way we did that operation that day, that was the way I was trained," Bulger said, adding he worked other police operations prior to the shooting that were carried out in similar way.

Boudreau is also expected to testify about his actions that day, including shooting Vienneau, when the hearing resumes Nov. 22. Final arguments are scheduled for Dec. 9 in Fredericton. 

A complaint about the conduct of the two officers led to an investigation, and each is accused of five code of conduction violations under the New Brunswick Police Act. They deny all counts. 

The hearing is to determine what discipline they may face. The city's police chief has recommended they be fired. 

The testimony Monday comes after the hearing was paused for more than a week. It began Oct. 16 and the lawyer for the chief of police called 11 witnesses before closing his case Oct. 23.

Starting Monday, the officers will be able to enter evidence and call witnesses. 

Those witnesses include Basque, who testified she didn't know Bulger and Boudreau were police, as well as other witnesses at the train station. Several officers who were also there as part of the police operation testified. 

An RCMP officer testified about carrying out an outside investigation of the shooting and writing a report.

That report found Vienneau had no criminal connections, was not trafficking drugs and may not have known the two were police when they tried to stop him. It also concluded he purposely hit Bulger before Boudreau opened fire. 

Michaud's ruling is binding, though it can be subject to judicial review. 

The two officers are suspended from the Bathurst police with pay pending the outcome of the hearing.