The murder trial of Nicholas Bellemare heard testimony Thursday from an officer who entered a Coquitlam condo with Ridge Meadows RCMP Const. Rick O’Brien, who was killed during the raid.
Bellemare is accused of having opened fire on officers with an AR-15 rifle as they raided the apartment – a drug stash house on the 22nd storey of 3007 Glen Dr., on Sept. 22, 2023.
O’Brien was shot in the face.
Bellemare was shot in the arm in the exchange of gunfire, and was arrested at the scene.
When officers searched the apartment after the incident, they found 724 grams of cocaine, seven grams of fentanyl, and other drugs with a total street value of around $65,000. Police also found $5,000 in a safe, and firearms. It was one of three locations police were raiding that day as part of a drug investigation.
Bellemare is charged with first degree murder – the charge for killing a police officer, regardless of whether the crime was planned or deliberate. He is also charged with attempted murder in the shooting of Cpl. Colin Ryder.
On Thursday, Dec. 11, the trial heard testimony from Const. Ben Ouellette, who was the third officer into the apartment behind O’Brien and team leader Const. Amber Carlson.
Ouellette, with the Ridge Meadows detachment, described how a large group of officers was briefed the morning of the raids before splitting up to go to the three locations.
At the Coquitlam condo tower, their team of five headed to the 22nd floor and waited out of sight of the apartment door.
They believed they would be able to get a key to the unit from one of the other sites being raided that day, but Carlson was later told over the team’s radio that the other officers could not locate the key. They were also told that a person they expected to be in the Coquitlam condo had been located at one of the other sites.
They decided to breach the apartment, but first Carlson listened at the door, and did not hear any noise inside.
Ouellette told the Crown prosecutors that he asked Carlson to let him be the third person to enter, behind her, as he had a Taser-style less-lethal weapon, and she agreed.
He also described the officers as being largely in uniform – O’Brien was wearing his RCMP trousers with yellow stripes down the legs, as well as hard and soft body armour with the word POLICE printed on the front.
“He was going to be the first to enter and he had the carbine,” Ouellette said.
A carbine is a small rifle.
Carlson knocked loudly on the door four to six times, said they were police and announced they had a search warrant. Ouellette said there was no sound from the other side of the door, so Carlson signalled one of the other officers to breach it with a small battering ram.
The door flew open with one hit, Ouellette said.
He was expected to continue testifying on what happened next after the court returned from a mid-day break for lunch.
Earlier, Ouellette also testified about his relationship with O’Brien.
“He was a good work friend,” Ouellette said, noting he and O’Brien would cross paths during shift change, and that they did a training course together in Chilliwack.
The trial began on Nov. 3 in Supreme Court in New Westminster, before Justice Terence Schultes in a judge-only trial.
– more to come
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