Cop recalls bullets, beatings and blazes on Grand Manan

The lawyer representing five Grand Manan men charged inthe July attack on a reputed drug dealer's house say the men were defending themselves and their community.

David Lutz said the men don't denysetting fire to the home in the smallcommunity of Castalia, but in a dramatic opening statement to the jury, he said they were acting in self-defence.

'There's no doubt these men did what the Crown says they did, but the issueis why they did what they did.' -Attorney David Lutz

"There's no doubt these men did what the Crown says they did, but the issueis why they did what they did," he said.

Testimony began Thursday in the trial of Carter Foster, Matthew Lambert, Michael Small, Lloyd Bainbridge and Greg Guthrie. The men are being tried together in front of a 12-member jury in a century-old courthouse in St. Andrews.

Three of the men are facing charges of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and two are charged with arson.

Lutz said he intends to call evidence at trial that will show the owner of the house, Ronnie Ross, was a crack dealer, and that he had previously threatened to burn out his neighbours and kill them. Lutz also promised to present evidence that people in Ross's house fired directly at the crowd.

Crown prosecutor Jim McAvity spent the morning laying out his case against the men, whose legal defence is being funded largely by donations from the Grand Manan community.

McAvity entered two dozen exhibits into evidence, including six rifles, a shotgun, some bullet fragments and spent cartridges. He also entered several beer and wine bottles with rags sticking out of them, that McAvity said smelled of gasoline.

He also erected a large aerial photograph of the street where the four-hour melee took place.Both Ross andFoster lived on Cedar Street, in homes across the street from one another. Ross's home is now a burned wreck.

The island's three RCMP officers testifiedon Thursday,starting with Const.Gerald Biggar, whotold the court that heresponded to a 911 call on Cedar Street shortly after 1 a.m. on July 22,and found a fire burning on the porch of the Ross house, and a flare burning in a tree.

He called for backup, and the only two other officers on the island, Const. Diane Verroneau and Cpl. Ron Smitharrived about 30 minutes later.

Smith testified that when he arrived at the scene, there were a group of people in the Ross house, and approximately 20 people on the street. He also noticedsix bullet holes in the side of a truck parked in front of the Ross house, and believed they must have come from the crowd on the street.

He saidthe crowd wasyelling things like "Get off our island" to the group at Ross's house, swearing at them, and the people at the Ross house were yelling and swearing back.

'Let us do our job'

The officer approached the group on the street, and told the court that some of the men were wearing baseball uniforms, one man had a baseball bat, someoneelse was holdinga snow shovel and another manwas leaningon a long piece of wood.

Smith described another man as having veins bulging out in his neck and his fists clenched. Smith said people told him: "We want the crack dealer off the island. Let us do our job."

'I figured things were under control.' - Cpl. Ron Smith

Smith saidhe calmedthe group down, byagreeingto look for bullet holes in Foster's house, because the crowd claimed shots were fired from Ross's house.

"I figured things were under control at this point," Smith told the court.

Things remained under control, Smith testified, until a tow-truck arrivedat about3 a.m. to take the bullet-ridden truck. That's when, he said, the group from the Ross house ran outside, yelling: "You're not taking our vehicle."Theywereconfronted by the other group.

That situation was defused by police when the tow-truck was sent away without the vehicle.

Then, Smith said, he heard a large "whump" sound, like a gas barbeque igniting, and saw a flickering light on the trees behind the Ross home. Smith yelled at the people inside the house to get out, and told the court that he sincerely believed the fire could kill someone.

He testified that he heard a group on the street shouting "Let it burn, let it burn," and then noticed rocks the size of golf balls dropping around him on the street.

'Have you ever had a family member on crack?'

Smith said whenfire department arrived shortly after 3 a.m., the two groups erupted into a fight, with people from Foster's house grabbing members of the Ross crowd one by one and beating them.

He testified that he and another officer tried to stop them, and managed to drag three beating victims away fromthe scene and into the shot-up Yukon truck, driven by Const. Verroneau,to get them off the island on the first boat at 7:30 a.m.

Fire crews managed to put out the blaze, but the crowd lit it on fire again and formeda human chain in the street to block a fire truck from getting to the house.

Cpl. Smith said he threatened to arrest the group, but someone told him, "Have you ever had a friend or a family member on crack? You don't know what it's like."

At approximately 5 a.m., Smith testified, Ross walked up the street carrying a baseball bat.

"He wasn't too happy," Smith told the court.

The group then yelled at Ross to get off the island, and Smith testified that some of them grabbed Ross, started beating him up and kicking him. The two remaining officers, Smith and Biggar pulled the crowd off of him, and placed him in a police vehicle to be taken with the other injured people to wait for the ferry to the mainland.

Defence lawyer David Lutz is expected to cross-examine the officers on Friday.

He has also promised to call approximately 25 witnesses, including a Grand Manan firefighter who will testify that he heard someone at Ross's house say, "If you burn down the house, we'll set up tents and we won't sell crack to your kids, we'll give it away."