Two minutes, thirty-seven seconds of terror.
A silent surveillance video recorded during a robbery and shooting was watched by a jury Thursday afternoon during the first-degree murder trial of Laylin Delorme.
On Dec. 18, 2015, Karanpal Bhangu was working alone overnight at a Mac’s Convenience store in Mill Woods. The 35-year-old had only been on the job for a month.
In the video, Bhangu is seen sweeping the aisle floors in the empty store at 3:20 a.m. Two minutes later, a man wearing a black hoodie and a mask over his face strides through the door and directly towards Bhangu. He takes 10 long steps. His arm is raised. He’s holding a gun.
The weapon is pointed at the clerk the entire time. When he reaches Bhangu, the gunman raises his arm and clubs him with the firearm in the side of the head.
At that point, two other males enter the store, also wearing hoodies and masks. Only their eyes are visible.
One pulls a long machete out of his sports bag.
On the surveillance video, Karanpal Bhangu appears to be co-operating fully with the robbers, but is unable to open a safe. (Court exhibit )
The surveillance camera shows the robbers and the clerk moving behind the counter.
Bhangu is holding the side of his head, but appears to be fully co-operating with the gunman’s demands.
The man bearing the knife begins loading cash into a sports bag, at one point stopping to pull up his jeans which were falling down. Then he resumes the work of stuffing his bag.
No access to safe
The owner of the Mac’s store, Malwinder Boparai, testified on Thursday that there were two safes behind the counter. He said Bhangu had the key to the small safe that held coins, but did not have access to the larger one that stored bills.
On the surveillance video, it appears Bhangu is trying to explain his inability to access the larger safe to his assailants. Once again, the gunman raises his weapon and clubs the clerk in the face. Bhangu falls backwards, hitting his head on the open cash register as he goes down.
The gunman pulls him up by the hair and Bhangu opens the smaller safe containing coins. He begins pulling out rolls of coins that are stuffed into the sports bags.
The masked robbers leave the area behind the till and walk in front of Bhangu, still holding his head but offering a roll of coins to them that they had missed picking up.
The man with the knife strides by first and looks back at Bhangu. Without warning, the second man raises his gun and fires two shots.
The jury has been told the first shot hit Bhangu in the stomach. The second shot shattered the glass on the counter.
The trio finally breaks into a run as they leave the store, two minutes and 37 seconds after they first entered.
Attempts to save Bhangu’s life
The jury was told Bhangu managed to push the panic alarm that was around his neck at some point during the attack. The alarm company unsuccessfully attempted to reach the clerk three times, so police were called.
Karanpal Bhangu had only been working at Mac’s for one month before he was gunned down in December 2015. (Park Memorial Funeral Home )
Const. Philippe Aube arrived at 3:37 a.m., 10 minutes after the robbers left the store.
Before he entered the Mac’s, Aube said, “I noticed there were cigarette packages all over the floor. I thought that was a little bit unusual.”
Not knowing if there was anyone dangerous still on the premises, Aube and another officer cautiously opened the door. Once inside, they found Bhangu lying on his back in a pool of blood behind the till.
“I do recall he was gasping for air,” Aube said. “His eyes were open. I remember saying, ‘Hey, stay with me. Stay awake.'”
The officers began to perform CPR and pressed a field bandage onto Bhangu’s wounds in an effort to stop the bleeding.
They were waiting for paramedics to arrive.
“It honestly felt like an eternity,” Aube admitted on the witness stand, adding it was between five and 10 minutes.
By the time paramedics got to the scene, Bhangu’s condition had deteriorated.
“He was obviously unresponsive,” paramedic Derrick Maron testified. “There was no pulse.”
Lottery tickets and blood stains near the till at the Mac’s store 3208 82 Street. (Edmonton Police Service )
Paramedics rushed Bhangu out of the store and into a waiting ambulance, leaving a trail of blood through the store.
Lifesaving efforts continued en route to the University of Alberta hospital where a trauma team took over. A letter from the trauma team leader, which was read to the jury, stated Bhangu’s pulse was lost 10 minutes before he arrived at the hospital. The doctor believed he had likely suffered a cardiac arrest.
Doctors cut open his chest and performed open chest heart massage, but were unable to revive the young father of one.
“We could not get his heart to restart,” the doctor wrote.
The jury has been told that not long after the first deadly attack, a trio entered a second Mac’s store. Prosecutor John Watson noted they had the same weapons and same sports bags, along with clothing that was similar to what the attackers wore at the first store.
Clerk Ricky Cenabre was shot and killed at the second location.
Colton Steinhauer is also charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths, along with another male who cannot be identified.