VANCOUVER: The trial continues as testimony is made about a shooting two years ago at a Delia B.C. high school.

A 45-calibre handgun was lying close to a dying man’s hand after he was shot Dec.11-990 while leaving a cultural show at a Delia school a defence witness testified Friday.

I saw the pistol very close to his hand” Maninder Gill told a B.C Supreme Court jury and Justice Thomas Fisher

He added he checked another man who had been shot then returned to Jaswinder Khakh and noticed the gun had been moved about two meters from Khakhs body which lay in the foyer of Delia senior secondary school. He said he assumed someone had kicked the gun after he first saw it. Gill promoter of Punjabis how’s and publisher of a Punjabi newspaper said he gave the keys to a van to his friend Harnek Singh Lalli 33 about 15 minutes before the end of the show at the school.

Lalli is accused of two counts of second-degree murder in the shootings of Khakh 27 of Richmond and Baljinder Gill 27 of Vancouver.

Both men were shot with a Chinese-made replica of a semi-automatic AK-47 assault rifle which was later seized by police.

Lalli is also charged with three counts of aggravated assault relating to three men injured by gunfire at the school.

The court heard earlier testimony from Billy Khakh about how he and his brother Jaswinder had bought a 45 caliber handgun similar t9 the one found at the scene from a “fence” in Coquitlam.

The gun recovered at the scene had been stolen from a private home a Delta police officer testified.

Maninder Gill told the court he went to the Ross Stet temple about 1:30 p.m on Dec. with Lalli and then they drove in Lall is van to the show in Delia arriving about 7 p.m

After the shooting Gill said he saw a rifle on the ground about 10 meters from the main entrance to the school. A man picked up the rifle put it in his car and left he added.

Cross-examined by Crown prosecutor Jim Jardine Gill was asked why he didn’t return the phone calls of police and didn’t sivepoliceastatementuntilec.3 two days after the fatal shootings.

Gill said he was busy at a party at Mogul Gardens restaurant on Dec.2 to celebrate the release of a cassette by a singer.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 8, 1996