“I looked down and there was a bullet hole spilling blood,” Weir said Monday at the trial of the man charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jahvante Smart, a 21-year-old Toronto rapper known as Smoke Dawg, and Ernest “Kosi” Modekwe, 28, who was a brand manager with the hip-hop music collective Prime.
Abdulkadir Handule, 26, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, as well as charges of aggravated assault and discharging a firearm with intent to wound.
Weir testified that she was sitting on a bench talking to two of her friends on Queen Street West on June 30 when she heard gunshots ring out and before she knew it, she saw a swarm of people screaming and running her way.
Before she could process what was happening, she got up and started running with everyone.
“We all just started running together,” Weir said. “Everyone was screaming and running.”
The 41-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to her upper right leg and injuries to her left leg and foot as a result of the shooting, the jury heard Monday.
Scrambling for shelter
Weir and her friends were attending a daytime party at Cube Nightclub that day, court heard. After leaving at around 7:30 p.m., she went to find a place to sit on the street while both of her friends entered separate stores.
At around 7:50 p.m., the three of them were on the sidewalk north of the nightclub, when the shooting started and people began to run, she said.
As she was reaching to grab the doors of a nearby store to find shelter, Weir said a man also trying to get in at the same time pushed in front of her.
“He kind of pinned me behind the second door at that point. That’s when I got shot,” she told the court.
“I felt the blood coming down my leg but I wanted to get to a safe place first before I did anything.”
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When she was able to enter and run to the back of the store for safety, employees helped her call 911 and she was taken to hospital shortly after.
But the bullet had remained in her leg until January 2019, when Weir found a doctor who would agree to operate on her and remove it, court heard.
Victim says she never saw her shooter
The trial began last week, after Crown prosecutor Anna Tenhouse laid out the prosecution’s case to jurors and Justice Brian O’Marra in Superior Court.
Smart suffered three gunshot wounds, one in his neck and two in his leg and was pronounced dead in hospital. Modekwe was shot once in the neck and died in hospital later that night.
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During a brief cross examination Monday, defense lawyer Dirk Derstein asked Weir whether she had seen any altercations that evening. She told the court she didn’t, adding that she didn’t see anyone with a gun, or get a glimpse of who shot her.
O’Marra reminded the jury Monday that it has yet to be proven in court who shot Weir.
Handule was known by his rap moniker, 21 Neat.
In July 2019, about a year after the incident, Handule was arrested by RCMP officers in Burnaby, B.C., for unrelated charges and turned over to Toronto police after a nationwide arrest warrant was issued in the wake of the shooting.
The trial resumes on Tuesday.
