Coquitlam man pleads guilty to lesser charge of manslaughter in daytime gang shooting

A young gang member who shot and killed a 21-year-old from a rival gang on a busy Coquitlam street in 2024 said in texts read out in court that he did it for revenge after his stepfather’s Mercedes was shot at.

The shooting on Jan. 6, 2024, was witnessed by several bystanders and recorded on dash cam. It was the third shooting in as many days in the city.

Tyrel O’Hearn, now 25, was charged with first-degree murder for the death of Erik Darnell, but he pleaded guilty instead to the lesser charge of manslaughter in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.

He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of another man on Jan. 1, 2024, and to possession of a restricted weapon (a semi-automatic Glock) during a traffic stop after the shooting.

Text exchanges between O’Hearn and others read in court indicate he killed Darnell during an ongoing dispute between members of rival gangs.

Before Darnell was killed, tensions had been escalating. In November 2023, two of O’Hearn’s “associates” were seriously injured during a shooting, the prosecutor and O’Hearn’s lawyer said in an agreed statement of facts.

Two days before Darnell was killed, there had been a shooting near the home of one of O’Hearn’s associates, court heard. And the night before Darnell was shot, someone left a bullet hole in the windshield of O’Hearn’s stepfather’s Mercedes G Wagon SUV at O’Hearn’s house.

“They brought my fam into this. But got his ass today hopefully he DOA (dead on arrival),” O’Hearn wrote in one text message.

On the day Darnell was shot, O’Hearn and a youth identified as RJ, followed Darnell and a second man on foot near Glen Drive and Westwood Street around 4 p.m. They exchanged words before walking away in the same direction on different sides of the street, according to the agreed statement.

On dash cam footage played in court, the first shot is heard. O’Hearn and RJ are seen crouching as Darnell and the other man run away. Four more shots are heard before Darnell hands a pistol he had been firing to his companion as he collapses. The pistol had jammed during the shootout, court heard.

O’Hearn and RJ fled. Three bullet casings were found near where O’Hearn had been standing, according to the statement.

Darnell was hit twice — one bullet grazed his thigh, and the second one hit him in the upper back, piercing his lung before exiting the left side of his chest.

He later died in hospital.

More than three weeks later during a traffic stop, police confiscated two cellphones belonging to O’Hearn and found text exchanges in which O’Hearn discussed the various shootings and an attempted murder on Jan. 1, 2024 — an ambush shooting in Surrey that left the victim with two bullet wounds.

Text messages showed O’Hearn discussing that shooting with another individual, the disposal of a vehicle used that night, and how much they would be paid.

“$2,500 for me, $5K for you,” O’Hearn wrote.