The man accused of killing an RCMP officer during a Coquitlam drug raid should be found not guilty because he believed he was acting in self-defence against intruders who failed to announce their presence, his lawyer argued Thursday.

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Nicholas Bellemare, 27, is on trial for the first-degree murder of Const. Rick O’Brien, 51, and for the attempted murder of Const. Colin Ryder, who was injured during the shootout at 10 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2023, on the 22nd floor of a highrise condo in the busy central part of Coquitlam.

Man who killed B.C. RCMP officer during raid was defending himself against ‘armed intruders’: Defence Back to video

The prosecution has argued the evidence shows Bellemare shot O’Brien without warning and without police firing a shot. Police officers testified they announced themselves before their forcible entry and only fired after Bellemare shot first.

But Bellemare’s lawyer, Tony Paisana, argued testimony from the lead officer, Const. Amber Carlson — that police knocked and yelled police before using a battering ram on the door — was unreliable.

Paisana told Justice Terence Schultes that he could reasonably find from the circumstantial evidence that Carlson or O’Brien shot at Bellemare first.

“Self-defence is supported by several facts,” said Paisana, including that Bellemare was isolated and vulnerable, had no motive to kill, had no ill will toward police and had no police record, yet had reason to fear a drug rip. In addition, the entire shooting lasted seconds.

Bellemare was sleeping and may have been wearing headphones from a late-night gaming session when he was jolted awake by loud noises, making it likely that he didn’t hear the police warning, if there had been one, he said.

“He was a 24-year-old, isolated, exploited, dependent person, surrounded by forces he did not control,” he said, referring to his role of protecting what was a drug-stash house.

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Seconds after being awakened, “he was confronted by a group of armed intruders who he did not understand were police,” he said. He had firearms and body armour in his bedroom but he was arrested wearing just undershorts, Paisana said.

“If Mr. Bellemere believed he was met by an armed intruder pointing an assault rifle at him, no one would hesitate to conclude that he acted in self-defence” or at least there is a reasonable doubt of that, he said.

“Mr. Bellemere bears no burden to prove this account,” he said. “Rather, it is the Crown that must disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Evidence shows that Bellemare was shot “very early in the sequence of events, perhaps even first or simultaneously with his shooting of Const. O’Brien,” he said.

Paisana said evidence, including blood spatter, injuries and fragments from O’Brien’s rifle butt, show that O’Brien had shouldered his carbine and was pointing it at Bellemare.

At that point, Bellemare would have been focused on the rifle and not the word police written on uniforms or hats, he said.

Prosecutors said earlier that police testified that O’Brien was in full uniform and “police” was clearly written on his vest and hat.

Paisana said testimony by Carlson — that she knocked a total of four times and yelled “police” several times before she gave the signal to a fellow officer to use a battering ram — in particular should be considered unreliable.

Her account of what happened wasn’t consistent with other evidence, including the testimony of other officers and of neighbours, none of whom testified they heard police yelling before entering.

Paisana said Schultes could conclude Carlson could have shot at Bellemare before he shot at O’Brien.

“The only evidence that you have before you that she is not the one who shot first is her own testimony,” said Paisana.

He called her testimony on that and other events “entirely flawed” and that she was “combative, defensive, argumentative and accused (him) of tricking her,” he said.

The defence continues its closing arguments on Friday.

slazaruk@postmedia.com