Close X
Friday, November 29, 2024
ADVT 
National

Ashcroft, B.C., Resident Testifies He Watched Shovel Attack On Neighbour

The Canadian Press, 12 Aug, 2015 12:21 PM
  • Ashcroft, B.C., Resident Testifies He Watched Shovel Attack On Neighbour
KAMLOOPS, B.C. — An Ashcroft, B.C., resident who stepped outside for a smoke may have witnessed the beating death of his neighbour with a shovel, a murder trial has heard.
 
Gil Anderson testified in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday about what he saw and heard on June 2, 2014, the day a man is accused of fatally attacking his uncle.
 
Shane Gyoba, 29, is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of Ed Gyoba.
 
Court heard Anderson called police in the town west of Kamloops, B.C., just under an hour after he went outside for a morning cigarette and heard a shouting match.
 
It was just before 8:40 a.m. when Anderson, who lived across the street from Shane Gyoba's home, went to investigate the sounds by walking around the side of his house to the driveway.
 
He peered through bushes and saw two people on the man's front lawn, but couldn't quite see their faces, he testified.
 
"I saw the silhouette on the left attack the one on the right. The one on the right tried to defend itself and the one on the left pursued until the one on the right fell down," he said.
 
Anderson said he then saw the attacker pick up something from the ground and start swinging.
 
"I could see the long handle and I wasn't quite sure what it was until I heard the shovel, the first strike," he said.
 
He heard a garbled voice and a groan, then what he believed to be two more strikes.
 
"It was a reverberating metal sound and a loud thump."
 
Then there was silence, he said.
 
Anderson told court he was shaken and first convinced himself what happened wasn't real.
 
The man walked directly past Gyoba’s yard to bring his daughter to school, without looking at the scene, he said.
 
"I could hear the sound of digging as I walked by — the sound of the shovel moving earth."
 
After the man returned home he decided to call police.
 
"I think at that point I'd accepted what I'd seen," he said.
 
"I'd come to the conclusion that I actually did just see that — that somebody had been assaulted and beat with a shovel 20 feet away."
 
A police witness earlier testified investigators found a broken shovel on Gyoba's property.
 
The trial before judge alone is expected to wrap up next week.

MORE National ARTICLES

Woman Arrested After Pattullo Bridge Crash That Damaged 30 Vehicles. PICS

Woman Arrested After Pattullo Bridge Crash That Damaged 30 Vehicles. PICS
A northbound car crossing the Pattullo Bridge in New Westminster, B.C., straddled the centre line and began driving over pylon dividers just before 6:30 p.m. on Thursday

Woman Arrested After Pattullo Bridge Crash That Damaged 30 Vehicles. PICS

B.C. Man Rylan Sandberg, 46, Admits To Possession Of Child Porn In Canada-Wide Bust

B.C. Man Rylan Sandberg, 46, Admits To Possession Of Child Porn In Canada-Wide Bust
Forty-six-year-old Rylan Sandberg pleaded guilty to possession of child porn in May.

B.C. Man Rylan Sandberg, 46, Admits To Possession Of Child Porn In Canada-Wide Bust

After 24 Pellet Gun Attacks, Abbotsford Police Arrest One, Search For Second Suspect

After 24 Pellet Gun Attacks, Abbotsford Police Arrest One, Search For Second Suspect
Police credit the observant cyclist with helping crack the case, by providing video of a hand sticking out the window of a 2006 dark blue Chrysler Sebring.

After 24 Pellet Gun Attacks, Abbotsford Police Arrest One, Search For Second Suspect

Saskatchewan Man, 24, Dies While Swimming In B.C.'s Shuswap Lake

Saskatchewan Man, 24, Dies While Swimming In B.C.'s Shuswap Lake
The service says Scott Kevin Glen was staying with friends on a rental houseboat moored at a marina near Sicamous, in B.C.'s Interior.

Saskatchewan Man, 24, Dies While Swimming In B.C.'s Shuswap Lake

Vancouver ESL Tutor, 70, Arrested For Sexual Interference Of 12-Year-Old Girl

Vancouver ESL Tutor, 70, Arrested For Sexual Interference Of 12-Year-Old Girl
Christopher Jon Adams was hired to tutor a girl after she arrived in Canada in 2013 and that an investigation began after allegations he may have touched the child for sexual purposes

Vancouver ESL Tutor, 70, Arrested For Sexual Interference Of 12-Year-Old Girl

Nurses Union, B.C. Government Invest Millions To Prevent Health-Care Assaults

VANCOUVER — A string of assaults against health care workers has prompted the B.C. Nurses' Union and the provincial government to invest $2 million in violence prevention at four high-risk hospitals.

Nurses Union, B.C. Government Invest Millions To Prevent Health-Care Assaults