Wednesday, 2 June 2010

 

Bouncer chased stabbing suspect
 

As Voodoo Nightclub bouncer Jeffrey Kinnear broke up a fight in the parking lot, he heard a scream like something out of a horror movie.

He turned away from the altercation and saw Kofi Ampong lying on the ground a few metres away, with a man standing over him. Kinnear had followed Ampong out of the bar, into a crowded parking lot at closing time because he knew he could be in trouble.

Ampong and his girlfriend had been confronted in the club earlier by three men and the argument that erupted appeared serious enough that Kinnear asked two RCMP officers in the parking lot to remove the three men. At night's end, he and another bouncer left the club behind Ampong in an attempt to protect him, but they instead had to jump in and deal with another altercation in the parking lot.

Kinnear testified during Daniel Ferris's aggravated assault trial in Moncton's Court of Queen's Bench yesterday that he felt he could have prevented the attack on Ampong, the morning of Sept. 1, 2007. Ampong was stabbed once in the chest and once in the back of the neck and his spinal cord was severed, leaving him paralyzed.

"I felt semi-responsible for this happening," said Kinnear.

He saw Ampong's attacker remove his clenched hand from Ampong's neck area and take off running. Kinnear bolted after him, with a Mountie right behind him.

"Being 19 or 20 at the time, I was up for a good chase," he said. "I had gloves on, I was good to go."

The bouncer chased the suspect, who ran behind Voodoo towards a residential area. The suspect approached a fence and Kinnear thought he would catch him going over, but could not. The suspect escaped after jumping the fence.

Kinnear said Voodoo — which was located on Mountain Road but is now defunct — was packed full of people that night and it was a rowdy crowd. It was ladies night, people were drunk and there was a lot of pushing and shoving all night long.

"The bar was known for being a pretty aggressive place that summer," he testified yesterday. "That night I had to rip a couple of guys off each other and threw a guy out for hitting his girlfriend. But that's Friday night at the Voodoo."

The trouble for Ampong began between midnight and 1 a.m. He was on the patio with girlfriend Samantha Belliveau when three men backed them into a corner and both sides exchanged insults. The argument was heated, racial slurs were thrown around and threats made.

Despite the fact he had already dealt with several incidents that night, Kinnear recognized this was serious and the RCMP should be brought in. "They were saying, You don't know who we are, we're from North Preston (N.S.),'" he said. "They were using that kind of slang, almost a gang mentality. I just knew they were bad news."

When the club closed a short time later, Kinnear and another bouncer followed Ampong out the door, but when they saw a punch thrown nearby, they jumped in to stop that fight. It turned out that fight wasn't real and by the time they turned back to Ampong he'd already been attacked and a man was hunched over him while he lay still on the ground.

"He wasn't supposed to be there," said Kinnear. "He sure as heck wasn't giving him CPR."

When Kinnear chased the suspect, the ambulance was called for Ampong, who's originally from Ghana, but came to N.B. in 2001 to study economics at St. Thomas University and moved to Dieppe after graduation. Paramedic Marc Brun responded to the call and he testified in court that the scene outside the bar was unnerving.

It was dark, raining, and hundreds of drunk bar patrons were milling about the parking lot. At times he described the scene as "chaos" and the crowd as "frantic."

As Brun and his partner tried to treat Ampong, another fight broke out next to them, prompting them to get Ampong on a stretcher and get him to the ambulance right away, for their own safety. They got him to The Moncton Hospital where he was treated for a chest wound and a stab wound to the back of the neck. A doctor told Brun that Ampong's spinal cord was severed.

RCMP Cpl. Jason Doucet was also called to testify yesterday in the jury trial being presided over by Justice George Rideout. Doucet is currently stationed in Iqaluit, Nunavut, but was working with Codiac RCMP's General Investigation Section at the time of the stabbing.

He testified that after interviewing witnesses, Daniel Ferris was identified as the suspect. Ferris's info was circulated to police officers and a warrant for his arrest was obtained later that morning. They were not able to locate him and Ferris was placed on the RCMP's national most wanted list, with a Canada-wide arrest warrant.

The accused was eventually arrested in Coquitlam, B.C., in April 2009 and brought to Moncton where he was charged with committing aggravated assault by wounding Kofi Ampong. He's been in custody since his arrest and his trial began Monday, when the jury was selected.

Scott Fowler is defending Ferris while Remi Allard is prosecuting.

Kinnear didn't see the face of the man he was chasing and said the suspect was thinner than Ferris, who has a stocky build. He also said too much time has passed for him to be able to say if Ferris was one of the three men in the club who argued with Ampong.