The first police officers to respond to a near-beheading incident described in court Monday the highly-charged and bloody crime scene.
Vancouver police Const. Robert Hirst told a jury that he and his partner, Const. Christopher Donnelly, were dispatched to the report of a fight on Elgin Street in East Vancouver.
As they arrived, there was a grey SUV parked haphazardly in the middle of the street, the vehicle’s doors open and the engine still running.
The officers saw a man in the front yard of a home, being “frantic, very emotional,” Hirst told the B.C. Supreme Court jury.
“He was yelling, screaming, and he was trying to flag us over,” said Hirst. “The next thing I observed was a body in the yard.”
The body was that of Manraj Akalirai, 19, who had been partially decapitated by an assailant wielding a samurai sword.
Amritpal Dhillon has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the January 2013 slaying. He is alleged to have used the sword to almost entirely sever the top of Akalirai’s head. Amritpaul Rakhra, his co-accused, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. He is accused of striking the victim with a golf club.
Hirst said the man who waved at them was the victim’s friend, a man who can be identified only as Witness X due to a publication ban imposed by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nathan Smith.
After calling for an ambulance, Hirst moved into the yard and saw the victim’s body was face down, with his arms spread out.
He said he noticed “fatal trauma to the head” and a silver knife in the victim’s right hand.
“The body was convulsing. Every several seconds, there was a slight convulsion indicating some life.”
Donnelly, who accompanied Hirst into the front yard, testified that he saw a pool of blood around the victim. He said he kicked the knife out of the victim’s hand and then stood by the body awaiting the arrival of paramedics. He then accompanied Akalirai to the Vancouver General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
As he was providing security at the scene, Hirst noticed a broken scabbard for the samurai sword in the yard, along with several knives.
A third officer arriving at the scene found a machete, a field hockey stick, a large pipe wrench and a hammer.
Dr. Carol Lee, a pathologist, testified that the cause of death was a combination of “sharp force” injuries and “blunt force” injuries to the victim’s head.
As she described the grisly injuries, several women wept in court and were provided with tissues by the Crown. One particularly distraught elderly woman was escorted out of court by another woman.
The Crown’s theory is that Akalirai was killed following a confrontation between two groups of young men. No motive for the attack has yet been presented in court.
Witness X, the Crown’s key witness, is expected to testify Tuesday.
