Teen who survived deadly 2019 attack testifies about night of cousin’s killing

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This article was published 29/11/2021 (1081 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AS Keanu Ducharme walked along Flora Avenue with his cousin, Danielle Cote, early July 1, 2019, he knew there was something not right about the young man approaching them clutching his stomach.

“These two guys came out of the blue… One guy saying: ‘Help me, I got shot,’” Ducharme, 19, told a jury Monday in Winnipeg. “He was walking and holding his stomach normal. This isn’t right; how do you hold your stomach normal if you just got shot?”

As the two males closed the distance between the pairs, the one clutching his stomach pulled a rifle from his pants and demanded “Give us your s—,” Ducharme testified.

When Ducharme didn’t respond, one of the males said: “F— it, kill him,” he said.

“I was shot in the face” and fell face-down to the ground, he said. Ducharme “played dead” as Cote shouted: “You shot my cousin. You killed my cousin.”

“I heard one of (the males) say: ‘We got to kill her, too.’ Then I heard a gunshot again.”

Cote, 27, died instantly.

Prosecutors say Cote and Ducharme were among four people shot by two teens during a spate of random attacks spanning nearly 24 hours.

A now-15-year-old accused, who prosecutors allege shot Cote and Ducharme, is on trial charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, and one count each of discharging a firearm with intent and possession of a firearm while prohibited.

Last month, a 16-year-old co-accused pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, discharging a firearm with intent and robbery with a firearm.

Ducharme said he continued to play dead as the two attackers kicked him in the face, rifled through his pockets and stole his sneakers.

He waited until the two males ran away and turned off Flora Avenue before getting to his feet and making his way to a nearby convenience store. Ducharme said he flagged down a passerby who ran to Ducharme’s home to get his father.

Russell Ducharme said he jumped on a bike and raced in the direction the passerby told him and found Cote lying on the ground in a puddle of water.

“I said: ‘Danielle, get up from there.’ I didn’t stop… I could have stopped, but I was more concerned about my son,” Russell Ducharme told court.

“I didn’t know (Cote) was dead,” he said. “I saw her leg move and figured she was unconscious.”

Ducharme said he found his son crouching against the wall of the convenience store.

“I grabbed my son and he fell into my arms,” he said. “Blood was coming out of his face. I wanted to cry and scream, but I held it tight for my son so he would see maybe there wasn’t anything all that wrong.”

Ducharme said his son asked him if he was going to die. “I said: ‘No, not today, everything is going to be fine, it’s not that bad.’”

Keanu Ducharme said shell fragments remain lodged near his brain and spinal cord and will never be removed.

“They are the size of a grain of rice and will kill me or put me in a wheelchair,” he said.

Russell Ducharme said Cote showed up at his home earlier that night to tell family members she wanted to give up drugs and make changes in her life.

“She looked happy,” he said. “She looked glowing.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca