Witness recalls a routine bush party in the lead-up to deadly gunfire

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Josh Dickie and his friends were leaving the bush party and crossing the street when they saw a white SUV speed toward them and make a quick turn to the left.

He said he and his friends laughed at the dramatic entrance. He said he heard the tires squeal before the SUV stopped at the corner. As a surveillance video from a home on Grand Oak Crossing showed, three women standing there were waving at the vehicle as it pulled up.

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Dickie recognized one of the women from his high school days. Another was the woman in the pink shirt Dickie had seen yelling at another of his high school friends at the party by the bonfire.

He testified to a Superior Court jury Monday he would find out later the woman who was yelling was Emily Altmann.

As Dickie and his group were walking past the vehicle, two men dressed in black got out. Their faces were covered in balaclavas and they wore hoods.

He said the shorter and heavier one of the two said to Altmann, “Where are they?” as Dickie and his friends walked past them. He saw the man flash a large “sword” sheathed in his waistband.

Dickie said he told his friends “to just keep walking.” Once back at their own vehicle, he and his friends tried to contact the people still in the woods.

Dickie was testifying at the second-degree murder trial of Altmann, 22, and Carlos Guerra Guerra, 23, both of whom have pleaded not guilty in the shooting death of Josue Silva, 18, a Western University student who died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen in the early morning hours of July 31, 2021.

Silva was among about 100 young people who attended the bush party in southwest London, organized to celebrate a birthday, that ended in deadly violence. Altmann and Guerra Guerra also have pleaded not guilty to assault with a weapon, namely a blunt object, on Logan Marshall, one of Silva’s closest friends.

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The jury already has heard the Crown case that Altmann called Guerra Guerra after an altercation to help her settle a score. While others were hiding in the woods, they went looking for them and Silva was shot to death.

The defence’s position is becoming clearer with each witness. Altmann’s defence lawyer, Nathan Gorham, has suggested Crown witnesses are lying and Silva and Marshall were armed with a machete and gun when Silva was killed.

The trial, which began a week ago, is expected to last 10 weeks. The jury already has heard there was a verbal altercation over a spilled drink between Altmann and her friends and Isabella Restrepo, 21, who concluded her testimony early Monday afternoon.

Restrepo admitted after the verbal jousting, she took a video of a young woman with a purse who was standing by the fire. Gorham accused Restrepo of lying, suggested the young woman was part of Altmann’s group, and the video was cyberbullying.

Restrepo said she thought it was odd someone would wear a purse to a bush bash and later agreed she posted it on her Snapchat feed to make fun of the girl. She said she had no personal beef with Altmann, someone she only knew from social media, and the video was filmed after her confrontation with the women, she said.

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Dickie testified when he and his friends arrived at the party, the bonfire was already roaring and about 30 people were there. More people showed up. “I recognized the majority of the people there, but there were a few I didn’t recognize.”

It was a typical party, he said, and agreed he saw no weapons. Everything was normal until “I just heard somebody angry, calling somebody names, the other one laughing,” about three metres away from him.

The person laughing was Restrepo. The person yelling was Altmann. “She was yelling and she was loud,” he said, and she was calling Restrepo profane names.

He knew Restrepo, though not well, from school and she was one of “hundreds” of Snapchat contacts he had. He did not know Altmann. What he witnessed were the last few seconds of the argument before he saw Altmann leave the party.

“I really didn’t think anything of it,” Dickie said through questions from assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Moser.

Dickie and his friends decided to leave about 15 minutes later, he said. They walked out of the bush and saw Altmann and her friends on the corner, and the vehicle roll up and barely stop before the two men in black got out.

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One man had the chrome sword Dickie said was about 30-centimetres long “with spikes protruding from the handle.” The other slimmer and taller man had a duffle bag strapped to his chest, he said.

“I kind of figured out what was going on,” Dickie said. “My reaction was to shut up and walk away and that’s clearly what I did.”

Once he and his group made it to their vehicle and were driving away, he began sending messages to Marshall and Restrepo, telling Marshall “the girl who was yelling at (Restrepo) is waiting at the corner” and that there were two guys “fully blacked out.”

Dickie said he warned Restrepo “there were guys here with weapons” and “to get out of there.”

“I had a bad feeling somebody was going to get hurt. Those were my friends,” he said.

Gorham asked Dickie repeatedly why he didn’t call the police if he thought people were in danger instead of just texting people. He also suggested Dickie wasn’t scared at all.

“I wouldn’t say I was scared, I was worried,” Dickie said.

Gorham accused Dickie of lying and “spinning a story” to protect his friends. He honed in on Dickie’s account of the original argument between Altmann and Restrepo because Dickie’s version didn’t include seeing Marshall, Silva and others kicking Altmann out of the party.

Dickie said he didn’t see that happen.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

jsims@postmedia.com

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