Casino hostage praises actions of ‘hero’ cop who killed attacker

Tetiana Piltsina, who was held hostage in a tense five-hour standoff outside New Westminster's Starlight Casino in 2012, says the Mountie who fatally shot her attacker is a hero. April 7, 2015. (CTV)

A woman held hostage outside of a New Westminster casino three years ago is speaking out for the first time since the standoff, calling the police officer who fatally shot her attacker a hero.

The comments come as the officer, Delta Police Const. Jordan MacWilliams, faces a second-degree murder charge for shooting Mehrdad Bayrami dead near the Starlight Casino in 2012.

Tetiana Piltsina told CTV News Tuesday that Bayrami, her ex-boyfriend, had been stalking her for months leading up to the fateful day.

“He was following me, he put GPS on my car, he was breaking in my house,” she said. “He was just there all the time. I start my shifts at six o’clock in the morning, he’s there…It’s scary.”

Then on Nov. 8, 2012, Bayrami took Piltsina hostage in a nearly five-hour standoff that ended in his death.

“From the first moment, I was scared to death that he’s going to shoot at me, right away,” said Piltsina. “People come over, people start yelling and call 911.”

The frightened woman said Bayrami repeatedly told her “I know I’m going in a plastic bag from here, but I’m not going in a prison,” and at one point fired his gun into the vehicle she was in, missing her.

During the standoff, Piltsina managed to escape unharmed with help from MacWilliams and two other officers.

Bayrami, who had appeared distraught and held the gun to his own head during the standoff, allegedly took two steps toward police.

He was then shot with plastic Arwen bullets and at least one round from an assault rifle. He was rushed to hospital and succumbed to his injuries a week later.

B.C.’s police watchdog launched a probe into the police-involved shooting and last year, MacWilliams was formally charged with second-degree murder.

The police officer is also being sued by Bayrami’s daughter, who alleged in court documents that the suspect was walking backwards away from the officers with both arms at his sides when he was shot.

New court documents reveal that MacWilliams was assigned to “lethal overwatch” duty in the incident, tasked with providing cover to other officers.

The civil claim response alleges that the suspect pointed his handgun in the direction of MacWilliams, who then opened fire because he “had a reasonable fear that the handgun would be fired.”

Piltsina has thrown her support behind MacWililams, and says the officer was just doing his job.

“They’re doing the job properly, and like I said before, if you obey the law and respect life of other people, you wouldn’t be at this point,” she said. “[It’s] definitely not the fault of the young police man, why should we destroy his life now?”

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Mi-Jung Lee