Saint John murder trial hears from eyewitness, says she saw accused take fatal shot
Zakkary Reed is charged with 1st-degree murder of Alexander Bishop
A Saint John jury has heard about a drug-filled night that led to a fatal shooting in the summer of 2023.
At the end of that night, Alexander Bishop, 38, had been shot and pronounced dead at the scene.
Zakkary Hyulett Reed, 31, was later charged with first-degree murder in Bishop's death. The jury trial began on Monday.
Shelly Smith was the first witness called to testify. She said there were a number of people in her apartment at 170 King St. East that night, including Bishop, who had been staying at her place for about a month, and Reed, who had been there for about a week.
Smith said she drank beer and did half a hit of acid that night. She said the others were doing drugs, including fentanyl and meth.
Smith said she was sitting in the living room when she heard a loud bang from another part of the apartment. She said she thought it was a heavy object falling on the floor.
Not long after, she said Hanna Graham ran into the room from the hallway and told her to call 911.
Graham, 24, told the court that she had been friends with Reed since about 2017 and had dated him until about a year before the incident. She said they remained really close and called him her "best friend."
Graham said she went to the King Street East apartment on the night of Aug. 19, 2023, to spend time with Reed.
She said she ended up taking a six-month-old pitbull mix, named Mase, for a walk. She went all the way to the north end to visit a friend who didn't answer the door, she said, and then returned to the King Street East apartment with Mase.
Graham said she was on acid that night and doesn't remember much.
She said she and Bishop were together in a back room of the apartment when the door flew open and Reed entered. She said he immediately shot Bishop once in the chest without saying anything.
Graham said she was "about two feet away" from Bishop at the time.
"He got shot … in the chest … once," she said, with prompting from Crown prosecutor Elaina Campbell.
"Who shot Alex?" asked Campbell.
After a long pause, Graham said, "I mean I wasn't really looking at his face."
After another long pause, she asked to be able to have a smoke.
'It was Zakk'
When the trial resumed after a short break, Campbell asked again about the shooter's identity.
"It was Zakk," said Graham, before starting to cry and wiping away tears with a tissue.
She said she was "trying to hold his chest together."
Campbell asked what happened next.
"He died," said Graham.
"How do you know that?" asked Campbell.
"Because I felt his heart stop beating in my hand."
Graham said Reed left immediately after the shooting, but isn't sure where he went or what happened to the gun.
Campbell also asked Graham about a series of text messages from Reed that were entered as evidence on Tuesday. The messages started rolling in after midnight.
Graham said she didn't receive or respond to the messages because her phone was dead.
The messages were riddled with typos and barely legible. Graham said they indicated that Reed seemed to be angry with her and Bishop.
She said it looked like Reed thought she was with Bishop when she was walking the dog for a good part of the night.
One, sent at 2:16 a.m., said, "Ull see watch this." Without a response, 25 minutes later, he wrote, "Guess ull see."
Graham told the court that she knew Reed was angry, describing it as, "Tripping out in his own head."
Four weeks have been set aside for Reed's trial.
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