Woman told police husband killed nephew but testimony differs during trial
CBC
Hours after being shot, a woman told police her husband may have killed her nephew and tried to kill her because she was away from home in the company of another man, court heard.
A voir dire opened Friday at a trial for Sherwood Park funeral home owner Gamdar Brar, who is accused of first-degree murder in 19-year-old Harmanjot Bhattal's May 2021 death, and of attempting to kill his wife Satvir Brar with a firearm.
A voir dire – a trial within a trial – is underway because Crown prosecutors are seeking permission to cross examine Satvir Brar, who is their own witness. The Crown is arguing that her testimony so far during the trial contradicts what she said during a 90-minute interview with RCMP in the hours following the shooting.
Usually, the Crown can only direct question one of their own witnesses. Being allowed to cross examine her would allow for a different style of questioning.
While testifying in the trial, Satvir Brar said she doesn't know who was driving her family's black BMW as it pursued her and her nephew through Sherwood Park on May 7, 2021, or who shot them.
During the voir dire Friday, prosecutors played a recording of her conversation with RCMP officers about three hours after she'd been shot.
She spoke to police in the emergency room at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton while awaiting surgery. Her hand and arm were injured in the shooting.
In the recording, Satvir Brar tells police about a fight with her husband the night before at their Strathcona County home where they lived with their two sons.
"I don't know what I did wrong," she said, explaining that sometimes he would get mad and swear at her.
She told him she was leaving and he told her not to come back, she told police.
She walked for 40 minutes and then called her nephew to come pick her up. After trying to check into a hotel and deciding against it, they drove to her sister-in-law's house in Edmonton, she told police.
While there, Satvir Brar said she spoke on the phone with a police officer who'd been called to her home, and asked them to wait there for her but she said they told her they wouldn't.
"The police officer shouldn't have left when I asked them to stay," she said on the recording.
She said she also spoke to one of her sons who was crying and told her his father told them she was with another man.
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