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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Accused killer vowed to 'blow the place up'

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 09/12/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

MORE than a dozen young people were drinking and dancing in the basement of an Elmwood home when a series of loud bangs could be heard upstairs.

At first, those in the room shrugged it off.

"We were joking about the area all night, how it was out of our comfort zone," one woman told a Winnipeg court Tuesday as she recalled what happened inside the Martin Avenue West home in December 2009. "(One of her friends) said to me, jokingly, 'Maybe someone got shot.' "

It was a matter of seconds before they realized the truth: Three people had been gunned down. Chaos and panic ensued as the woman and others fled the home through the upstairs kitchen where the blood-soaked victims lay.

Tyler Hawula and Matthew Reynolds, both 18, were killed. Kyle St. Germaine, 17, was wounded. The two intruders allegedly responsible for the attack had fled into the neighbourhood. Police arrested two suspects a short time later.

The two accused are on trial, having pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder. Their names can't be published because they were 16 and 17 at the time of the killings. Both are alleged members of a gang and were looking for revenge after one was kicked out of the party.

Young women who witnessed the aftermath testified Tuesday they feared the potential for violence after seeing Hawula and Reynolds evict a guest. The young man, who they didn't know, startled several party-goers when he took a large knife and told people he was involved in a gang. As the man left against his will, he issued a threat.

"He was yelling that he was going to come back and blow the place up," one of the women told court. The Crown said he recruited a friend who had a shotgun for the return visit.

The accused allegedly shot Hawula in the abdomen and Reynolds in the chest. St. Germain was shot seconds later, and the gun was pointed at a fourth man but the shooter had run out of ammunition, court was told.

A youth is charged with first-degree murder in the case and an adult has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

-- Mike McIntyre

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 12, 2012 A5

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