John Koopmans is led away by Penticton court house sheriffs following a day in court. Koopmans trial continued today with testimony from Bradley Martin.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON - Witness testimony in the Koopmans murder trial took on a decidedly different direction as a key witness took the stand for a second day.

Bradley Martin continued his testimony today, March 5, in Penticton Supreme Court in the trial of John Ike Koopmans, who is charged with two counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Yesterday, Martin described being shot in the chest by Koopmans, but said he managed to flee to the road to flag down help from a woman driving by. Today he said he couldn’t understand why the first police officer to arrive did not have a siren or spotlights on.

“It was like he was unaware of the calamity of the situation. I was worried my friends might be gunned down in cold blood,” Martin told the court.

He said the ambulance arrived and he couldn’t understand why the paramedics weren’t treating him.

“I tried to speak up, but my life force was getting weak. The police officer wanted my height and weight in metric, not imperial units, which I thought was very quirky,” Martin said.

Martin said he had to “deke” the police officer to get to the ambulance, adding the paramedics were “dumbfounded.” He said when he reached the ambulance, paramedics refused to treat him because his dog, Freedom, had followed him in.

He described his treatment in the ambulance of being put on a gurney and forced to lie in an inclined position with his head on the floor of the ambulance. He couldn’t breathe and had to force himself to sit up, adding “getting shot was like getting whacked with a sledge hammer.”

Martin was then asked to identify Koopmans as the man sitting in the chair in Wharton’s bedroom the night of the shooting, which he did.

The court was also shown Martin’s gunshot wound, Dubenski locating the entrance and exit wound on Martin’s partially exposed torso.

On cross-examination, defence lawyer Don Skogstad posed a number of questions to Martin about his cell phone, eliciting confused and contradictory answers. Further cross-examination revealed Martin’s criminal record for possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking and two theft convictions, even though Martin indicated he had never had any trouble with the law. Skogstad described an instance where Martin was picked up by police at Princeton Castle, where Martin once worked, because people thought he was a danger to others, implying he had mental problems.

“Mental problems? I have no mental problems - no health issues other than being shot with a gun,” Martin said.

Skogstad then asked if Martin remembered “paranoid schizophrenia” as a phrase being used to describe him, to which Martin said: “People throw that at me to get their way.”

The strange testimony regarding initial police and paramedic response was also repeated during the afternoon’s cross-examination, when Martin insisted he had to deke the police “five or six times” to get by the officer who “jumped right in my path.”

“He was definitely impeding me from getting care. I had to push him aside,” said Martin.

When asked if he could identify the officer in question, Martin said: "If you can tell me his height and weight in metric I might be able to," to muffled laughter from the gallery.

The trial continues.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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