A 16-year-old boy who was stabbed to death after leaving class was pinned against a wall before suffering a volley of stabbings, testified an educator who initially thought it was punches.
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“From the angle I was at, I thought it was punches, it was so fast, it happened so quickly… Jannai fell to the ground, he was in pain, he was screaming in pain,” said emotionally. testified Andrea Elizabeth Williams this Tuesday in the Youth Division of the Court of Quebec.
Mme Williams was testifying at the trial of a minor accused of the second-degree murder of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, which occurred on October 18, 2021. That day, the 16-year-old victim had just left class with friends, in the Côte neighborhood -of snow. However, at the same time, the accused, who cannot be named due to his age, was loitering in the area. The latter had been expelled from school a few weeks earlier.
Jannai Dopwell-Bailey was stabbed to death on October 18, 2021, in Côte-des-Neiges, on the grounds of his school at the end of classes.
Photo AGENCY QMI, THIERRY LAFORCE
Stuck
Having a bad feeling, Ms. Williams, an educator, would then go to Jannai Dopwell-Bailey and her friends to tell them to leave. In vain since just afterwards, an individual who accompanied the accused then went towards the victim in order to spray him with cayenne pepper.
“Jannai tried to run away, but they ran after him,” Ms. Williams said, holding back tears. The individual pushed Jannai against a wall, he held him there and the accused came in front of him, he stabbed him… then he fled. »
Obviously upset by the events, the woman seemed to hold back tears when she recounted how she tried to help the victim on the ground.
“He managed to get up, I walked with him towards the school… he was screaming in pain,” said Mme Williams.
In the heart
The victim ultimately succumbed to his injuries. And according to forensic pathologist Caroline Tanguay, the teenager was stabbed at least 6 times, including once in the heart. It was this injury that caused his death, she told the jury.
The accused, for his part, had fled. And according to the evidence that the Crown plans to present, the now 18-year-old celebrated his crime on an Instagram video, about an hour later. He was handcuffed three days later in Ottawa.
The jury trial, presided over by Judge Annie Émond, continues all week.
– With Erika Aubin