Driver argued with accused before death

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This article was published 21/01/2019 (2167 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Moments before Irvine Jubal Fraser was fatally stabbed, an expletive-laced argument between the Winnipeg Transit bus driver and the man accused of attacking him escalated quickly.

Video from five on-board bus cameras was played before the jurors on Tuesday, in the second-degree murder trial of Brian Kyle Thomas, 24. Thomas has pleaded not guilty.

The unedited video, which was shown publicly for the first time, shows how the disagreement between the two men began on the parked bus, before spilling onto the street.

Footage shows Thomas getting on the bus downtown at 1:14 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2017, with someone behind him telling the 58-year-old driver that Thomas is drunk. For the benefit of those in the gallery who couldn’t hear it, Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal paraphrased what was said to the driver as the accused got on the bus: “Hey, guy, that guy’s drunk. Can you at least give him a ride?”

The jurors then watched the uneventful bus ride to a transit stop at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus.

Fraser: “Last stop.”

Thomas, who was apparently sleeping, appears to wake up.

Fraser, more loudly: “Hey! Last stop.”

Thomas: “Where’d my buddy go? Did he go?”

Fraser: “Everybody got off the bus… The bus is out of service.”

Thomas questions the driver about what happened, and missing his stop.

Fraser: “Not my fault.”

Thomas: “Where the f— am I?”

Fraser tells him they’re at the U of M, and Thomas asks the driver to drop him off somewhere.

Fraser: “I can’t give you a ride. Get off the bus, please.”

After Thomas further inquires on the whereabouts of his friend, Fraser again tells the passenger he has to leave.

Fraser: “It’s the last time I’m going to ask you. Off the bus.”

Thomas says he’s in the middle of nowhere and there’s “nowhere close by with a phone or something.” Fraser tells him to look around the campus for a phone.

Thomas: “They’re closed down, man. Please, man.”

Fraser appears to lose his patience: “Off the f—ing bus! I’m not going to say it again. Get off the f—ing bus!”

Thomas continues the argument.

Fraser: “I don’t care. Get off the f—ing bus. Move it!”

In the video, the veteran Transit driver grabs Thomas, forcing him off the bus and blocking him from getting back on, pushing the physically smaller accused. Thomas can be heard spitting at the driver. Fraser exits the bus.

The video from Fraser’s bus doesn’t show a struggle outside.

Thomas yells: “You f—ing bitch! F— you, then! What are you pushing me for? You f—ing bitch!”

A segment of video recorded by cameras on a second Transit bus that had arrived at the stop shows what appears to be two people grappling beside the first parked bus. The driver of the second bus stops, exits his vehicle and runs toward the pair yelling: “Hey! Hey! Hey!”

The second driver then turns and runs back to his bus.

When first responders arrived on scene, Fraser had no heartbeat. He was taken to Health Sciences Centre, and pronounced dead at 2:43 a.m., said forensic pathologist and medical examiner Dr. Charles Littman, who performed the autopsy.

Fraser died from multiple stab wounds, Littman said Tuesday.

The 6-2, 240-pound bus driver was stabbed six times, including in the neck and chest. Fraser’s jugular vein was perforated, his left lung collapsed.

Littman described the wounds as having been caused by a weapon with a blade with a single, sharp edge.

A kitchen knife police found two months later in a park across the Red River from where the stabbing occurred was shown in court and Littman said it could be the weapon used in the attack.

When cross-examined by defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg, Littman said the weapon could also have been scissors, if wielded as a single blade.

The jury is expected to hear more about a pair of scissors discovered near the scene of the stabbing and mentioned by forensic evidence specialist Patrol Sgt. Brian Neumann in earlier testimony.

The trial continues.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca