An Otter Point man fought back tears as he testified Tuesday in his neighbour’s trial, describing a struggle with his neighbour over a rifle that left him with a bullet in his torso.
Anthony Nelson, 55, took the stand Tuesday in Paul Tregear’s trial and told the jury he noticed a man leaning against the side of his house holding a rifle when he went to his camping trailer on May 7, 2022.
Tregear faces charges of aggravated assault, discharging a firearm with intent to wound, maim or disfigure, possessing a firearm without a licence and pointing a firearm at a person.
The Crown’s theory is that Tregear shot Nelson after conflicts between the two families.
Nelson said he walked from his front door to his trailer, which was parked next to the house, and walked up the trailer’s steps. From the top step, he could see through the trailer’s windows and noticed a man propped up on the side of the house holding a rifle pointed in his direction.
“I was like, ‘Am I seeing this?’ ” he testified.
Nelson said he moved away from the trailer window briefly and peered back again to confirm what he was seeing. The man was wearing a hat and holding the rifle by his shoulder, with his eye to it in a ready position, he said.
“I said: ‘What the [expletive] are you doing on my property with a gun and who are you?” Nelson testified.
The man, who Nelson did not yet recognize, asked Nelson if they had “a feud,” he said.
Nelson said he called out to his wife, who was inside their home, to phone the police and tell them somebody was in their yard with a gun.
When Nelson saw the man start to walk toward the trailer and him, the gun now at his waist, Nelson walked down the steps and around the trailer, he said.
Asked by Crown prosecutor Sofia Green to describe in detail what happened next, Nelson became emotional, pausing to compose himself.
Nelson said he grabbed the barrel of the gun with his left hand and pushed it away. The man moved back and then jammed the gun into his stomach, Nelson told the jury.
Nelson said he was still holding the barrel of the gun when he realized he was hurt.
He said he “started unloading fists on him,” but he couldn’t get the gun away from him.
Nelson managed to get his right hand on the other end of the gun and “cracked him in the face with it,” he testified.
The man stepped back and Nelson took the gun from him, he said.
That’s when Nelson asked what he was doing there and who he was, Nelson said.
“He said: ‘You want to hurt my Cindy [Hehn],’ ” Nelson said, referring to Tregear’s partner.
Nelson said he realized he was fighting with his neighbour.
He said the full extent of his pain hadn’t kicked in yet, and he “had a job to do.”
Nelson said he believed that his wife, who was still inside their home, was at risk as well and he would do “whatever it takes to make this go away.”
When Tregear tried to leave, Nelson threw him to the ground and lay on top of him, until his pain started to intensify and he realized he was spent, he said.
He walked to his front stairs with the rifle and collapsed, Nelson said.
He testified he didn’t hear a gunshot but he heard his wife tell police on the phone he had been shot.
He was rushed to hospital, where he went into surgery and had 18 inches of his small intestine removed, he said.
Nelson said he had two subsequent surgeries and the bullet remains in his body.
Cross-examination by Tregear’s lawyer, Neil Brooks, about previous statements by Nelson and the strength of his memory led to testy exchanges, with Nelson at times raising his voice.
Brooks picked at discrepancies between Nelson’s previous statements given to police or under oath and his testimony Tuesday, such as whether his front door was locked.
“Who cares? The fact of the matter is your client came on my property and shot me. That’s a fact,” Nelson said. “If I’ve misinterpreted some words like beef or feud, I’m sorry.”
Brooks questioned Nelson about a possible fire ban in March 2022, when his son hosted a bonfire on their property.
The planned fire led to a visit from the fire chief to the Nelson property after a confrontation between Tregear’s partner and Nelson’s son about the proximity of the planned location to the Tregear property.
Brooks contrasted Nelson’s testimony Tuesday that there was no fire ban on the day of the bonfire with an earlier statement to police in which he said there was a ban.
Nelson said he didn’t know why he had said there was a ban, and if there had been, the fire chief would have told his son not to light the bonfire.
“Do you often just say stuff that you don’t know why you say it?” Brooks asked.
“Come on, that’s not fair,” Nelson responded.
Raising his voice, Nelson said he didn’t know why “we’re making a big deal of it today,” calling it irrelevant.
The exchange led to a warning from Justice Sharon Matthews to both men not to talk over each other.
Matthews told Nelson to answer the questions asked, even if he doesn’t understand why they’re being asked.
“That’s the way it works in court. The lawyers ask the questions and the witnesses answer them,” she said.
Nelson is expected to continue on the stand Wednesday, followed by his wife.
