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Woman saw men wearing gloves, hoodies on day of Surrey Six murders

Two men got out of black BMW, a third held parkade door, Helen Lee testifies.
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The Balmoral Tower apartment building in North Surrey where six men were murdered in 2007.

She was leaving a Bible study session at a friend’s Surrey apartment on Oct. 19, 2007 when she saw the vehicle: a shiny black BMW with a chrome front bumper.

There were two Caucasian men inside, Helen Lee testified on Monday during week two of the Surrey Six trial, and when they got out, she saw they were both wearing jackets with hoods covering their faces and leather gloves. A third man was holding a door nearby.

Lee had gone to the Balmoral Tower apartment building in North Surrey that morning with her young son to get together with a group of women.

Speaking through a Korean interpreter, she said she was leaving the apartment at about 2:25 p.m. when she saw the BMW “stalled” in the parkade, as if it was going to park. She stood with her son for about 20 seconds, waiting for the vehicle to move, and when it didn’t, they began walking.

Suddenly, the car backed up and parked.

She was “stunned” and “angry,” she said, because she and her son were almost hit.

Then, testified Lee, she saw the expressions of the two men in the front seat of the BMW.

“They seemed very angry,” Lee said.

She was frightened and ran to her car.

The two men in the BMW, one of them tall and one shorter, she said, got out of the car while a third – she wasn’t sure where he came from – held a door in the parking garage, as if waiting for people to go in and out.

Lee was testifying Monday at the trial of Cody Rae Haevischer, Matthew Johnston and Quang Vinh Thang (Michael) Le, who are all facing first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder charges.

They pleaded not guilty on day one of the trial Sept. 30.

During the opening of the trial last week, the Crown alleged two of the three that are on trial went to the Balmoral apartment to kill one man, but six ended up dead that day.

The Crown’s theory is that Corey Lal, a drug dealer, was targeted by rival gang members and that his brother Michael, as well as Eddie Narong, Ryan Bartolomeo, gasfitter Ed Schellenberg, and Balmoral resident Christopher Mohan, were murdered to ensure there were no witnesses.

It’s alleged Jamie Bacon (who will be tried separately at a later date) and Le ordered Haevischer, Johnston and another person who cannot be named to murder Corey Lal.

The Crown alleges Haevischer, Johnston and another man took a BMW matching the description of Haevischer’s car to the Balmoral on the day of the murders. The Crown believes the murders took place at about 2:40 p.m.

Following the shootings, it’s alleged, the accused went to a nearby apartment where Haevischer lived with his girlfriend. The accused, prosecutors theorize, changed their clothes, boiled a bag of cellphones, and then destroyed both. Haevischer then had someone take his BMW for cleaning, said the Crown.

Testifying Monday morning, Lee said when she got into her car, she phoned the host of the Bible study session to tell her there were strange men in her building’s parkade. She told her to warn another woman who was there to wait awhile before leaving.

The trial continues.