Justin Bone trial hears RCMP drove accused into Edmonton despite court conditions

Video played Thursday at Justin Bone's murder trial showed the accused raging in an RCMP cruiser on May 15, 2022, three days before his arrest for the beating deaths of Hung Trang and Ban Phuc Hoang in Edmonton's Chinatown.

Bone had been released from the Edmonton Remand Centre to a home in Alberta Beach, but was kicked out after a conflict with the homeowner. RCMP decided to transport him to Edmonton and drop him near a homeless shelter, despite court conditions barring him from the city.

During the drive with Const. Andrew Simmons, Bone repeatedly accused police of throwing him into homelessness and forcing him to breach his release conditions. "You guys are putting me in the worst possible position," he shouted. "I'm so done dealing with this s—. I want to die."

Simmons told Bone there was no room at an addiction treatment centre where Bone was on a wait list. When Simmons said he worried Edmonton police might arrest him for breaching release conditions, Bone erupted: "You can't f—ing breach me, you're taking me! I'm not getting breached, I'm doing nothing wrong!"

Bone expressed deep anxiety about street life. "Shelters are always dirty, full, drugs, gangs — that's not my life," he said. He asked to be dropped at a church on the city's west side rather than downtown. "I don't like being downtown, it's ugly, it's f—ing gross."

Simmons later contacted city police to explain the situation and gave Bone a business card. The plan was for Bone to contact his probation officer the next morning to arrange emergency housing.

The police decision to transport Bone into the city was the subject of an abuse of process motion by the defence seeking a stay of charges, which Court of King's Bench Justice Paul Belzil dismissed. The case is part of ongoing scrutiny of policing and public safety in Chinatown, where the homicides were part of a surge in late-pandemic violence.