Court in Ottawa Thursday heard a 101-year-old war veteran’s harrowing account of a violent home invasion in 2014.

Ernest Cote died shortly before his 102nd birthday, so instead of an oral testimony, the court heard a portion of his police interview from a couple of days after the alleged invasion, where Cote details what happened on Dec. 18, 2014.

Cote was alone in his apartment when a man entered his unit, claiming to be a city worker. When he didn’t give the man money, the man tied Cote up, covered his face with a bag and stole his wallet.

Cote told a 911 operator a white man dressed in dark clothes committed the alleged attack. The suspect stole his wallet, Cote says in the call.

“He covered my face,” Cote is heard telling a 911 dispatcher. ”If I had not found a way to untie my wrists, I would have smothered because he covered my face with a bag.”

Surveillance video from that day shows a man dressed in black getting buzzed into the building and entering an elevator.

Court also saw photos of the plastic bag that was wrapped tightly around Cote’s head, the duct tape that secured it and the phone he used to call 911 for help after wiggling free.

As a result of the investigation, Ian Bush is charged with attempted murder, robbery and forcible confinement. He was turned over to police after Bush’s family recognized him in a surveillance video.

Earlier Thursday, court heard the testimony of Maurice Drouin, the building manager. He saw police in Cote’s unit, and thought it was joke. Cote replied with “No Maurice, I’ve just been attacked.”

As a lieutenant-colonel, Cote was a senior planner for the invasion of Normandy and the logistics officer with the 3rd Canadian Division, which landed on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.

In 2014, he travelled to France for the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

Cote died in Feb. 2015. At the time, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Cote a “true Canadian Hero.”

With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Joanne Schnurr