Fifteen-year-old Jane Creba was in obvious distress and struggling to stay alive after she was struck by a bullet during a gunfight, a witness said Monday.
Artem Verechtchaguine was seated in a car that had stopped on Yonge Street, just north of Dundas Street, when gunshots rang out on Boxing Day, 2005. Creba, an innocent bystander, fell to the sidewalk just outside a Foot Locker.
She had been shot in the back. Six other people walking along the busy downtown street were wounded in the shootout.
A 20-year-old man, identified only as J.S.R. because he was a youth at the time of the shooting, is on trial for second degree murder. He is also facing six counts of attempted murder.
At the time of the incident, Verechtchaguine was headed to the Eaton Centre to do some Boxing Day shopping. The car stopped, and he saw a man just south of the Foot Locker appear to fire a gunshot.
"At the beginning I thought it was fireworks," he said.
He then heard at least two more shots.
"I look to my right. I see a person with his hand extended and I see the gun in his hand," Verechtchaguine testified. "I hear two or three shots and I see the flashes and after that I get down in the car."
He also testified that he saw one man running and jumping backwards as he fired his gun, while another seemed to be firing his weapon into the air.
Verechtchaguine's friend, who was driving the car, exited the vehicle and ran to the other side of the street. Verechtchaguine also stepped out of the car but hid by the open driver's door.
Despite his close proximity to the gunmen, Verechtchaguine was not able to get a close look at either of them.
In four weeks of testimony, no witness has said they saw J.S.R. fire a gun.
With a report by CTV's Chris Eby
