In Calgary courts: Victim of deadly ambush that took wife’s life still doesn’t know who was behind the attack​on February 12, 2025 at 2:03 am

Arnold is charged with first-degree murder in Baron’s death and attempted murder for shooting Fouani. His lawyer Kathryn Quinlan indicated when her client was arraigned before the 14-member jury that he was willing to plead to manslaughter in Baron’s death.

But Crown lawyer Hyatt Mograbee said the prosecution will be proceeding with the first-degree murder charge against Arnold.

In a statement of agreed facts read in by Mograbee, she told jurors the accused is not denying being the gunman captured on the video footage shown in court.

“The accused, Michael Arnold, admits that he shot Talal Fouani and then shot Nakita Baron,” Mograbee said.

“He admits that he is the person depicted in the video of the shooting.”

That video shows Arnold, wearing a construction vest and walking a small dog, approach Fouani’s 2012 Bentley Continental as it backed out of the driveway of his home in the southwest community of Evergreen.

The accused walked by the front of the vehicle and up to the driver’s side window before pulling out a handgun and firing twice, causing the dog to start squealing.

As Arnold tried to pick the dog up, he dropped his gun, causing the magazine to go flying through the air, before he grabbed the canine and ran from the scene.

Const. Karly Piper, who along with her partner were the first emergency personnel on the scene, said she was able to view and seized the video after canvassing nearby residents for witnesses.

Piper said the call for a “priority one shooting” came in at 8:26 a.m.

After viewing the video she was able to find the ejected magazine some distance from the Bentley and place an exhibit marker beside it.

Before having co-counsel Greg Whiteside play the video for jurors, Mograbee noted there was audio on the footage.

Despite that there was little audible noise until the two loud bangs on the video when Arnold discharged the gun.

In her opening address to jurors, Mograbee said the magazine had Arnold’s DNA on it.

She also said Fouani is currently before the courts on his own criminal charge.

“It is not a secret that he has been charged with money laundering. It is human nature to wonder if that is connected to why the accused shot him and his wife, but you do not have to figure out whether or not there is any connection to this case.”

The trial is set for four weeks.

The fatal stabbing of a Priddis man outside a Banff bar is not a whodunit, a Calgary jury was told Monday.

In an opening statement to a 14-member Calgary Court of King’s Bench jury, Crown prosecutor Mykel Long said the question of who killed Ryden Brogden won’t be for them to have to determine.

“This case is not about how the deceased, Mr. Brogden died, nor is it about who caused his death,” Long said, on the first day of what is scheduled to be a three-week trial.

The prosecutor went on to say accused murderer John Sproule and Brogden were strangers and tourists in the idyllic mountain town when they had a chance encounter outside the Dancing Sasquatch on Banff Avenue on the early morning of Sept. 3, 2022.

Long said Sproule and his brother Josh were in Banff as part of a family vacation and had gone out for drinks after dinner.

Brogden, meanwhile, was passing through the national park town on his way to B.C. for a fishing trip with friend Howard Pearce, who had also gone out for a night on the town.