A trial for a man accused of attempted murder saw Tuesday a recorded interview the accused gave to police in which he said he was trying to disarm an adversary and was not trying to kill him.
Bradley Douglas Barr, 35, also faces charges of discharging a firearm with an attempt to wound or disfigure and unlawful discharge of a firearm in the Sept. 20, 2012 shooting of Craig Frederick Lyver, 42, on a 2800-block Northwood Pulp Mill Road property.
In the interview, given in February, Barr told an RCMP officer he had met Lyver through Jason Hall, the former Renegades motorcycle gang president who was murdered in March, and came to live in Lyver's house, in the 2200 block of Bedard Road, after he was evicted from his previous home for failing to pay his rent.
But he said Lyver started pushing him around, despite Barr loaning him $5,000.
Matters came to a head when Lyver showed up in his bedroom at 3 a.m. one morning and demanded he go over to the Northwood Pulp Mill Road property to tend to the plants in a marijuana grow operation in the garage.
Barr said he refused and, in response, Lyver "lost it" and trashed a dresser and mirror and kicked his door down.
That was when Barr decided it was time to leave and move in with his girlfriend, the court heard, but Lyver refused to let him go with anything other than his clothes.
After a couple of weeks, Barr decided it was time to leave Prince George altogether. With his girlfriend along with him, Barr drove his truck over to the Northwood Pulp Mill Road property to retrieve a trailer he owned.
But he arrived to find Lyver sitting on a stack of tires in the driveway with a shotgun in his hand.
When Barr got out of his truck, Lyver got up and walked towards him with the shotgun aimed in his direction, the court heard. That was when Barr pulled a shotgun of his own out of the back seat of his truck, "and that's when I shot him."
Barr said he hit Lyver in the knee and he went down on his stomach but was still holding onto the gun. Barr then shot him in the rear, but Lyver still kept his grip on the gun, so he shot him in the arm and Lyver let go of the weapon.
"In my mind, I'm trying to disarm him," Barr said in the interview.
Barr said he then picked up the shotgun Lyver had been holding, got back into his truck, and took off. His next step was to bury the two shotguns in a remote area away from the scene.
Barr said he went there with "fingers crossed" that he wouldn't run into Lyver but had brought a shotgun along with him as a precaution.
"He was bragging to me in the past about people that he's killed and shit that he's done," Barr said. "As far as I know, he was affiliated with the Hells Angels, he was pretty close with Jay, he was a prospect in Calgary.
"All these stories were about Hells Angels and biker this and biker that and the guy was puffing himself up to try and be somebody."
Barr said he had since learned from a disclosure that Lyver was actually waiting for Hall following a dispute over some allegedly stolen property.
Last week, Barr was put in police custody for a day with the intention of leading officers to where he said the guns were buried. But on Tuesday, the court was told the search of the area described by Barr failed to turn up anything.
The B.C. Supreme Court trial before judge alone continues today at the Prince George courthouse.
