‘This wasn’t some prank call’: Murder trial hears from police officers who responded to scene

The jury in a Saint John murder trial heard from police officers on Wednesday.

On the third day of Roman Kamyshnyy’s murder trial, the court was shown bodycam footage from the first police officers to arrive on scene.

Kamyshnyy has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two boys, aged 17 and 10, in Saint John, N.B., in January 2025.

It is alleged that Kamyshnyy stabbed the two victims, who are referred to as A.B. and C.D. to protect their identities, to death before he attempted to take his own life with a nail gun.

Kamyshnyy, aged 46, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Saint John Police Force constables Nick Roy, Matthew Innes, Jeffrey Hamilton and Ayden McIntyre each took the stand Wednesday morning.

Roy told the 14-member jury he was just starting his shift when police received a 911 call from the city’s north end shortly after 7 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2025. He and Hamilton were the first to arrive on scene, followed by Innes.

The court heard that the officers raced up the stairs to the apartment building’s second floor, where they saw a puddle of blood outside the door of one unit.

“We knew this wasn’t some prank call,” Hamilton told the court, noting that some 911 calls are made accidentally. “It was serious.”

The officers tried to open the front door, which seemed to be barricaded. They noted doors in and around Saint John can be heavy but are known to “fly open” when kicked in the proper spot.

It took Innes and Roy nearly 30 seconds to open the door, which Roy later testified was being barricaded by a dining room chair.

“Right away I see a young male lying just outside of the entryway,” Roy testified while being shown his and Innes’s bodycam footage from that morning when they first entered the unit.

“I kind of look at the young male on the floor and realized there was a serious threat in the apartment.”

Officers found accused covered in blood

He then heard a noise that sounded like a pump-action shotgun from a room down the hall. The court heard officers then entered a bathroom, where they found Kamyshnyy sitting on the toilet covered in blood, and called for him to come out with his hands up.

“I could tell he was alive, he just wasn’t responding,” Roy testified. “I carried on a few times to try and get him to come out, then I notice a small hole (in his head).”

At the time, Roy thought the wounds were from a gunshot. It wasn’t until a CT scan was performed at the Saint John Regional Hospital later that morning when it was learned the wounds were from a nail gun.

Police then pressed further into the apartment, checking all available rooms, the bodycam footage shows.

In one dark bedroom, they found the body of A.B. on a bed.

“I thought there were two children in the bed tucked in,” testified Hamilton, who learned shortly after just one child was in bed.

“Then I heard a comment from officer Roy that implied the kid was deceased.”

Roy said the sheet did not have any visible holes or blood on it, but when it was removed, multiple stab wounds were visible on the victim.

“It was pretty obvious what happened; he had been killed,” he told the court. “It’s now a crime scene.”

Innes and Hamilton arrested Kamyshnyy for murder. While reading him his rights and placing him in handcuffs, the pair recall hearing a lot of moaning from the accused.

“I asked him, I think, about three times if he had any weapons on him, and he was not responding,” Innes testified. “He was pretty much non-verbal … he just appeared to be upset and not making any sense."

Officers recalled a lot of “dead weight” while moving Kamyshnyy down the stairs from the apartment to the police car.

McIntyre pulled his cruiser up close to the entrance and Kamyshnyy was placed inside the vehicle. McIntyre and Hamilton then brought the accused to the police detention centre. They arrived shortly after 7:30 a.m.

They had called for EMS to meet them at the centre to further assess Kamyshnyy’s injuries. He was then taken to hospital for further assessment and later underwent surgery to remove the nails from his head.

The defence had no questions for any of the four officers brought to the stand.

Court hears 911 call from C.D.

On Monday to open their argument, the Crown read portions of a transcript of a 911 call C.D. made before he died.

Wednesday, the jury heard the call played out loud in the courtroom.

“Please, please, please help,” the 17-year-old pleaded with the 911 operator before giving the name of the street on which the apartment was located.

“Please, please, he got a knife.”

Much of the call was silent, outside of some slight commotion heard in the background, and the 911 operator continually asking “hello” to no answer.

Kamyshnyy hung his head while the 911 call was played, only looking up occasionally to read the transcript of the call on a screen beside him while the audio played in the courtroom.

‘He just said he killed them’

The first person called to the stand Wednesday afternoon was Corey Dugas, who was a good friend of Witness A – the Crown’s key witness, whose identity is protected.

Dugas said he received a call from Witness A around 7:24 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2025. He didn’t answer at first, as it was early and he was still sleeping, but answered the second call shortly after.

“He did it … he just said he killed them and he’s going to try to kill himself,” Dugas told the court Witness A said to him over the phone.

Dugas said Witness A, who was away in Ottawa on a work trip, asked him to go to the apartment building. He told the court he drove over and saw a large police presence and called Witness A to tell them it was true.

The next two witnesses lived in the apartment building on the same floor as Kamyshnyy. Igbagbo Akomolafe lived across the hall from the accused at the time, while Andrew Gentry lived beside him.

Akomolafe, who spoke to the court virtually from British Columbia, said he passed by Kamyshnyy in the hallway while taking out the trash the night before. He recalled saying a quick “hello” to Kamyshnyy, who greeted him back, which Akomolafe said was a bit strange as he was not known to be overly friendly.

Akomolafe testified that he heard a commotion across the hall around 7 a.m., while he was preparing breakfast for his toddler.

“It was progressive, so it was not just a sudden shout,” Akomolafe told the court. “I remember vividly my wife was trying to maybe open the door and I told her no because we don’t know what’s out there.”

Gentry also recalled hearing a loud commotion next door.

“It was like someone was in pain,” he testified.

Gentry said he opened his door to look into the hallway at one point and saw a puddle of blood. He then shut and locked his door.

‘I heard every thump’

Tenants Maddison Brown and Robert MacKean, who lived below the apartment, told the court they could hear the sound of some sort of incident happening above.

“I can only speculate, but it sounded like maybe someone being hit while they were on the floor,” Brown told the court, later noting she was the one who let police into the apartment building. “It was a hit, then a pause, then another hit.”

“I heard every thump against that floor,” testified MacKean.

Legal Aid Lawyer Shanna Wicks, who is representing Kamyshnyy’s defence, only asked Dugas a few questions about his relationship with Witness A.

She did not have any questions for the other witnesses brought to the stand Wednesday.

Witness testimony is expected to continue Thursday.

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