An RCMP officer described how a preliminary test done on the shoes of a double murder suspect on July 24, 2022 showed the possible presence of blood
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A Squamish Mountie recalled in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday how he spotted and then pulled over a possible getaway car with two murder suspects inside.
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Testifying at the trial of Gursiman Sahota and Tanvir Khakh, Const. Mark McMahon said he received information about the fatal shooting outside Whistler’s Sundial Hotel just after noon on July 24, 2022.
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Sahota and Khakh are charged with the first-degree murders of Meninder Dhaliwal and Satindera Gill at the boutique hotel that day.
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McMahon told Justice Miriam Gropper and 12 jurors that information about a black Chrysler sedan possibly connected to the shooting had been circulated among police.
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As he was on shift, he set up an observation post in the northern part of Squamish beside the southbound lanes of Highway 99 at Depot Road, he testified. He was alone inside his marked RCMP truck with his lights flashing at the time.
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“Given the fact it was potential shooting up in Whistler or a reported shooting, I put on my body armour as well — my hard body armour — for my protection,” he said, in response to questions from Crown prosecutor Don Montrichard.
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At about 12:55 p.m., McMahon saw a black Chrysler sedan heading toward Squamish. He pulled out with his lights flashing and was a few vehicles behind the suspects as traffic was “heavy,” he testified.
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By 1:03 p.m., the Chrysler had pulled over at Garibaldi Road, the trial heard.
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McMahon said Khakh — whose identity he learned later — was driving. Another man was in the front passenger seat.
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At first he couldn’t see the three passengers in the back because “the windows were up, and they were very dark,” McMahon said.
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Montrichard asked the constable if he had any concerns while standing beside the parked Chrysler waiting for backup.
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“I kept seeing the male furthest from me in the rear, so behind the front passenger seat … Mr. Sahota, I learned later, but I kept seeing him fidgeting and fiddling with something around his lap with his hands, and I had to ask him repeatedly to stop moving his hands and put them somewhere I could see them.”
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McMahon agreed with Montrichard that he and another officer seized items of clothing from all five suspects that day.
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Earlier Wednesday, Cpl. Jaehun Lee testified that a preliminary test done on Sahota’s shoes showed the possible presence of blood.
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He said that on July 24, he was tasked with photographing and swabbing items of clothing seized from Sahota and Khakh after the arrests.
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The preliminary “hemastix” tests conducted on Sahota’s shoes indicated the possible presence of blood in six spots, Lee said.
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He agreed with Crown prosecutor Fatemeh Nejatali that he then swabbed those spots for additional laboratory testing that was required for confirmation of blood.
