A Montreal rapper who fired a banned firearm toward a Saint-Henri district bar was finally found guilty across the board, despite attempts to raise doubts in the judge’s mind.
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“The evidence is extensive and compelling, the videos could not be clearer and paint a damning picture of the defendant,” said Judge Thierry Nadon this Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse.
Photos submitted at the trial of Brandon Buissereth, who was found guilty of firing a firearm at the Riverside Bar in Saint-Henri on June 18, 2021. The photo was provided by the court
Brandon Buissereth sat in the dock and was unaffected by this verdict, which would see him sentenced to between 5 and 14 years in prison.
Buissereth, a 28-year-old rapper, committed his crime on the night of June 17-18, 2021. On that day, he went to the Riverside bar, which runs along the Lachine Canal in the Saint-Henri district. But at some point a conflict broke out between two groups and shots were fired.
Everything indicates that Buissereth had nothing to do with this shooting, except that a few seconds later he appeared in front of the bar and began firing with a Ruger LC9 9mm pistol, a banned weapon.
Photo provided by the court
“Then he sets off,” explained the judge.
Injure
In total he fired five bullets towards the bar, where passers-by were hanging out. Among other things, he hit the driver’s side window of a parked vehicle and the rear door of another vehicle.
“He was targeting people, his intention was clearly to injure,” the judge concluded, adding that the weapon was found under a park bench.
Photo provided by the court
During the trial, however, Buissereth raised the possibility that he was not the shooter or that the gun was loaded with blank cartridges, meaning the true perpetrator of the shooting was at large.
Captured by a camera
However, these arguments did not work, especially since the shooting was filmed by a driver who was on the way to the bar and had equipped his vehicle with cameras.
In these images we can clearly see a single fire before the escape. The judge compared, among other things, the shooter’s clothing with that of Buissereth at the bar and concluded that it was the same person.
Several bullet casings were also found at the location where the shots were fired.
Buissereth was therefore found guilty of possession of a prohibited weapon, but also of firing a firearm towards a place with intent to endanger life.
The gun was found under a bench in a park. Photo provided by the court
He will return to court in January for an oral hearing on the sentence to be imposed on him. My Anthony El Haddad and Ouissam Akhrif from the defense intend to call witnesses to paint a positive picture of the defendant. Mr Jean-Philippe MacKay of the Crown will consider whether innocent witnesses to the shooting want to testify.
Calls to 911 that evening should also be submitted as evidence to prove the panic that the affair caused.
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