Officer was in 'bad shape'

An officer held back tears in Kelowna court Wednesday morning as he described his blood-covered colleague collapsing into him, after he'd been slashed in the face during a March 2022 incident in downtown Kelowna.

The third day of Richard McCrae's attempted murder trial saw testimony from Const. Taylor Backman, who was one of the first responding officers to the Ellis Place supportive housing development at 1055 Ellis Street on the evening of March 26, 2022, after Const. Jason Tymofichuk issued a "Code 10-33" tone alert over the police radio. The code means “emergency, need immediate assistance.”

Const. Tymofichuk suffered a laceration to his face when he responded to an earlier call at Ellis Place. The Crown alleges McCrae slashed the officer's face with five-inch knife during a dispute and he's charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault of an officer, disarming an officer, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and willfully resisting an officer.

'Tensions were very high'

In his testimony Wednesday, Const. Backman said he arrived at the scene to find Const. Tymofichuk with a “severe laceration” from his forehead down to his eye, pointing his firearm at a man in the back alley behind Ellis Place.

While the two officers demanded that the man, later identified as McCrae, drop the knife in his hand and get on the ground, Const. Backman said McCrae appeared to drop the knife, but turned around and walked away from the officers.

Another officer arrived on scene, and they fired three Taser shots into McCrae's back. But Const. Backman said they weren't effective, as the Taser electrodes didn't pierce through McCrae's coat.

“Tensions were very high at that point,” Const. Backman testified.

An officer deployed a fourth Taser shot into McCrae's back, which finally dropped him to the ground. Const. Backman said he then ran to McCrae to arrest him, but by the time he reached him, McCrae had somewhat recovered.

“We had quite the fight on the ground there,” Const. Backman said. “He was going to get off the ground and at that point I was running as fast as I could towards him so I struck him as hard as I could in the face with my right foot."

Const. Backman said he jumped on top of McCrae and held his neck down to the ground, noticing a large laceration on the man's neck. The cut had been self-inflicted earlier.

“Mr. McCrae really ramped up the fighting at that point. I still had my pistol out at that point so I put my pistol directly against the temple of his head and I said 'stop fighting or I will shoot you,'” Const. Backmand said.

But as McCrae continued to fight back, and rolled over to look directly at the gun, Const. Backman said he had to made a “really rough decision.”

“The three of us at that time were essentially losing a fight against Mr. McCrae, I didn't want my firearm to be used against us. I didn't want him to get ahold of it, so I had to make the hard decision to holster my firearm and go to a more physical approach, which was striking him with my right fist [three times] directly in the head,” Const. Backman said.

A different officer was then able to place handcuffs on McCrae, and Const. Backman got off of him.

Officer 'in bad shape'

Const. Backman said as soon as McCrae was in handcuffs, he ran back to Const. Tymofichuk, who was “wavering in his stance” and in “bad shape.”

During his testimony about Const. Tymofichuk's condition, Const. Backman paused several times, working to maintain his composure.

“He had a large amount of blood pouring down his face and on the front of his ballistic vest. He told me he felt dizzy and he started to collapse,” Const. Backman said. “I held onto him so he didn't completely fall with his body weight.”

Another RCMP member who was trained as a paramedic eventually took over caring for the injured Const. Tymofichuk.

The officer survived the attack, but he testified Tuesday that he still suffers from nerve damage on the side of his face and head.

Witness recently died

One of the witnesses who was scheduled to testify at McCrae's trial recently died. Cpl. Ewan Dewolf of the Kelowna RCMP testified Wednesday that he went to find Michael (Mac) McGregor at the Heath House supportive housing development on Sept. 12. But when he got there, McGregor was found dead in his room.

Cpl. Dewolf did not go into details about how McGregor died.

At a preliminary inquiry held in October 2023, McGregor testified that he was a “front row witness” to McCrae's alleged attack on Const. Tymofichuk. He said McCrae threw the officer against a fence and wrestled with him, cutting the officer's face with a knife during the struggle.

He said the pair also struggled for Const.Tymofichuk's firearm at one point.

“This guy had grabbed the gun and was twisting it towards the officer's face and I thought it looked like he was going to pull the trigger right at the last second and blow the cop's head off, so that's when I jumped in and broke it up,” McGregor testified. “I didn't want anyone to die, because it happened so fast.”

He went on to testify once Const. Tymofichuk regained control of his gun and pointed it at McCrae, McGregor stepped in between them and said: “Don't shoot him, he's not well, he's got mental issues.”

“I swear [McCrae] said he had a demon inside of him or something, and then he used his own knife to cut his own throat and then I swear I seen him stabbing himself in his own throat," McGregor told the court last October.

Scared of 'demon voice'

McGregor, like others who knew him, testified McCrae was a “very nice” and soft-spoken man most of the time, but he struggled with mental issues.

“It was definitely schizophrenia, but I think it was a lot more than just that,” McGregor testified. “He had a soft voice normally ... it was a nice, soft-spoken voice. But when he changed his language or whatever, it was in the deepest, darkest, monstrous voice I have ever heard.”

McGregor said McCrae was “very intimidating” and “a scary person” when he speaking in his “demon voice,” but he was usually “a very, very nice guy.”

The trial for McCrae, who remains in custody, is scheduled to continue next week.