A Montreal rapper who fired a prohibited firearm in the direction of a bar in the Saint-Henri neighborhood was finally found guilty on all counts, despite his attempts to sow doubt in the judge’s mind.
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“The evidence is extensive, compelling, the videos could not be clearer and paint a damning portrait of the accused,” Judge Thierry Nadon declared Tuesday in the Montreal courtroom.
Photos presented during the trial of Brandon Buissereth, convicted of discharging a firearm at the Riverside bar in Saint-Henri, on June 18, 2021. Photo provided by the court
Sitting in the dock, Brandon Buissereth remained impassive in the face of this sentence that should earn him between 5 and 14 years in prison.
Buissereth, a 28-year-old rapper, committed his crime on the night of June 17 to 18, 2021. That day he went to the Riverside bar, which borders the Lachine canal, in the Saint-Henri neighborhood. However, at one point, a conflict broke out between two groups and shots were fired.
Everything indicates that Buissereth had nothing to do with this shooting except that a few seconds later, he appeared in front of the bar and began shooting with a Ruger LC9 9 mm pistol, a prohibited weapon.
Photo provided by the court.
“Then he leaves,” the judge explained.
Hurt
In total, he fired five bullets towards the bar, where passersby were. Among other things, he hit the driver’s side window of a parked vehicle, as well as the rear door of another vehicle.
“He was pointing it at people, his intention was clearly to injure,” the magistrate concluded, adding that the weapon had been found under a park bench.
Photo provided by the court.
However, during the trial, Buissereth had raised the possibility that he had not been the shooter, or that the gun had been loaded with blanks, so the true perpetrator of the shooting was at large.
Caught on camera
However, these arguments did not work, especially since the shooting was filmed by a motorist who was heading to the bar and who had equipped his vehicle with cameras.
In these images we can clearly see an individual catching fire before fleeing. By comparing, among other things, the shooter’s clothing with Buissereth’s at the bar, the judge concluded that they were the same person.
Several bullet casings were also found at the place where the shots were fired.
Buissereth was therefore found guilty of possession of a prohibited weapon, but also of having fired a firearm in the direction of a place, with the intention of endangering lives.
The gun was found under a bench in a park. Photo provided by the court.
He will return to court in January to present oral arguments on his sentence. METERis Anthony El Haddad and Ouissam Akhrif, for the defense, intend to call witnesses to paint a favorable portrait of the accused. METERmy Jean-Philippe MacKay, for the Crown, will check whether innocent witnesses to the shooting wish to testify.
The calls made to 911 that night should also be presented as evidence to demonstrate the panic that the matter had generated.
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