A B.C. woman who was held hostage outside a casino three years ago is voicing her support for the officer who fatally shot her abductor. That officer has been charged with second-degree murder and is facing additional charges in a civil suit.
Tetiana Piltsina opened up for the first time about the scary 2012 ordeal in which she was held against her will by her ex-boyfriend, Mehrdad Bayrami, at the Starlight Casino in New Westminster, B.C.
"From that first moment I was scared to death that he was going to shoot at me," she told CTV Vancouver.
Piltsina was rescued, unharmed, but not before Bayrami shot at the car she was in.
She said Bayrami had been stalking her for months.
"He was following me. He put the GPS on my car; he was breaking into my house," she said.
After a tense five-hour standoff, Bayrami was shot dead by Delta police Const. Jordan MacWilliams. MacWilliams was charged last year with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting. He is also being sued in a civil suit by Bayrami's daughter.
At a court appearance last year, officers from across Metro Vancouver came to show their support for MacWilliams.
Now, Piltsina is also stepping up to defend the constable.
"(It's) definitely not the fault of this young policeman," she said. "Why should we destroy his life now?"
Court documents reveal that MacWilliams was assigned the role of "lethal overwatch" at the scene – which means he was to provide cover to other officers. He decided to fire when Bayrami pointed his gun at him and his colleagues.
The documents also claim that MacWilliams "had a reasonable fear that the handgun would be fired, creating a risk of death or grievous bodily harm to himself or others."
Piltsina said the officers at the casino were just doing their job. "They're heroes to me. Anyone who protects us, they're heroes," she said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Mi-Jung Lee
