Testifying as the only defence witness, Zakkary Reed admitted shooting Alexander Bishop in the chest, but said he did so in self-defence.
Reed, 32, is on trial for the first-degree murder of Bishop, who died at the scene on Aug. 20, 2023.
Reed began his testimony Thursday morning by describing himself as a “huge music geek” and a charitable guy with a good heart.
Then he described what led up to the shooting by explaining that he was homeless starting in late June or early July after an incident with his fiancée’s family.
He said he was left alone with his dog Mase and staying with a friend in Moncton, who eventually asked him to leave.
By the first week of August, Bishop, 38 — who also didn’t have a place of his own — invited Reed to crash at a friend’s place at 170 King St. East. Reed said he left Moncton immediately, in the middle of the night in a snowstorm.
Defence lawyer Annie Maltais interrupted him, asking about a snowstorm in August.
After a pause, Reed admitted that there couldn’t have been a snowstorm.
In long and often-rambling answers, Reed said that without money, he became dependent on Bishop and the drugs he provided Reed.
He said things got more tense when Reed accompanied Bishop on a drug-related trip to Prince Edward Island just before the shooting.
According to text messages shown to the jury, the two arrived back in Saint John around 2 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2023, the day before the shooting.
Hired as Bishop’s ‘muscle’
Reed said Bishop hired him as a bouncer or body guard to provide security for him. He said he challenged Bishop about getting “vocal and aggressive” with him.
“You bring me around as muscle and then you start muscling the muscle,” he said he told Bishop.
Reed said he was growing more afraid of Bishop.
“I didn’t trust him to turn my back on him.”
In the hours before the shooting, Reed said he got more agitated when his ex-girlfriend showed up to spend time with him and immediately went to the back room with Bishop.
Text messages appear to show Reed was jealous, but he denied that when asked by Campbell. He said he felt “betrayed.”
Meanwhile, he was also trying to convince his fiancée to visit him and growing increasingly angry that she couldn’t.
In a series of text messages shown to the court, Campbell suggested he made his plan pretty clear in the hours leading up to the shooting. At least five times, Reed texted that he was going to shoot or kill Bishop — mentioning him by name. In others, he threatens to kill “buddy” or makes more vague threats about doing something bad.
Campbell showed Reed a message he sent less than 45 minutes before the shooting, where Reed told his fiancée that he was going to shoot Bishop in the chest with a shotgun in five minutes.
Reed told Campbell that he has a habit of making idle threats in order to get attention.
Under direct examination, Reed said he was arguing with Bishop when Bishop stepped toward him, pointed a handgun at his face and yelled, “Let’s do this.”
“I felt like he was going to shoot me,” Reed told the jury.
“I was scared for my life. … I didn’t think I was going to make it out of there alive. So I reached down in my luggage that was there and pulled the gun … and I shot him before he could shoot me.”
Reed said he panicked and ran from the apartment, hearing “a loud bang” on the way out.
Campbell wondered why he ran away if he had shot Bishop in self-defence.
“I was afraid of the police,” said Reed.
He said he was worried about “police brutality.”
Admits lying to police several times
Campbell also asked Reed about the statements he gave to police on the day of the shooting and the next. Over three hours, his story changed several times.
At first, Reed denied even knowing the victim and said he wasn’t anywhere near the crime scene at the time of the shooting.
Eventually, he told lead investigator Det. Const. Dwayne Squires that he was there and that Reed pointed a gun at him, but he repeatedly denied that he shot Bishop or that he even had a weapon.
Reed admitted lying to police several times.
“I didn’t tell the truth because I don’t have any faith or trust in the police,” he responded when asked why he lied.
Under redirect from his own lawyer, Reed said, “It’s my right not to give him a damned thing.”
Campbell asked Reed about several entries in his criminal record, including two for assaulting peace officers, one for assault causing bodily harm and one of impersonation.
Reed admitted all of them.
Campbell also asked Reed about having a gun within reach.
With a gun already in his face, she wondered how Reed had time to reach into his luggage at his feet and shoot Bishop before getting shot.
Reed said, “That’s what happens when you hesitate.”
The 12 jurors in the case were asked to return to court Tuesday with their bags packed for their final instructions from the judge.
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