Damian Hudson testified he fired in self-defence outside Leslieville safe injection site

Drug dealer Damian Hudson testified that on July 7, 2023, the day Caroline Huebner-Makurat was struck and killed outside the Leslieville safe injection site, he fired a single bullet in self-defence after being shot at.

The 34-year-old, who is on trial for second-degree murder, has admitted he fired the shot that killed Huebner-Makurat, but has pleaded not guilty.

Hudson, speaking with a soft voice and being asked repeatedly by Superior Court Justice Michael Brown to speak up, told the jury he went to the safe injection site that day to sell drugs that were in short supply and to meet with a worker from the site named Khalila Mohammed.

In a series of text messages between Hudson and Mohammed shown to the jury, Hudson testified he agreed to go meet with Mohammed who had been texting him to stop saying “there was a possibility I could take her out.”

Hudson said when he went to the site, he was carrying two cellphones and a side bag which contained an ounce of cannabis worth $240, a couple of ounces of cocaine worth $3,200 and $1,500 cash.

After arriving, Hudson testified he sat down and talked to a couple of drug dealers and possibly sold some drugs, when he ran into “the man in grey” who is agreed to be Ahmed Ibrahim.

As he was standing talking to a few friends, Hudson testified he noticed out of the corner of his eye a black shadow which turned out to be “the man in black” approaching with a gun in his hand. It’s an agreed fact that Ahmed Ali is “the man in black.”

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Hudson said he was scared and started running away. He said he noticed that the man in grey was chasing him along with the man in black before they both caught up to him and started attacking him.

Hudson described how the man in grey tried to bear hug him when the man in black began pistol-whipping him.

“I was trying to resist the attack. I was holding onto my bag and the man in grey, he ended up taking the bag from me and I noticed the man in black dropped the gun,” said Hudson.

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Hudson said he tried to pick up the gun but couldn’t get it, saying the man in black was able to retrieve it.

After the two men ran away, Hudson testified he chased them and tried to get his bag back from the man in grey. Hudson said as they were struggling, he heard the man in black yelling, “Shoot him, Broski, shoot him,” and said the man in black told the man in grey to get out of the way so he could shoot him.

Hudson testified the man in black began pistol-whipping him again and fell to the ground before the man in grey stumbled forward and a gun fell to the road beside him.

“I seen the gun on the road beside me and I shifted my body to the right, covered the gun with my hip area. I grabbed the gun with both hands and tried to get up. I noticed the man in black had the gun pointed towards me. As I was getting up, the man in black fired and then I fired,” said Hudson.

Hudson said he only remembered firing once and noticed he got hit.

“I turned around and I started running. I was hit on my inner thigh,” he testified, saying he didn’t realize anyone else had been hit.

Hudson said he put the gun in his waistband and walked east on Queen Street before turning north on Boston Avenue. On his way to a nearby McDonald’s where he called a Lyft, he said he threw the gun in a dumpster at the end of a laneway.

When defence lawyer Charn Gill asked Hudson why he threw away the gun, Hudson replied, “Because I didn’t know what to do with it. It wasn’t my gun so I just threw it in the garbage.”

Hudson testified he went to his girlfriend’s house and told her he wanted to go to the hospital. But on the way, he convinced her not to go because his last visit to the hospital had been traumatic.

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Hudson told the jury earlier in the day he was shot five times in 2017, spent months in hospital and in rehabilitation and was concerned because the shooter had never been caught.

He testified that the bullet that struck him outside the safe injection site was only a graze and he didn’t need surgery or stitches.

During cross-examination, Crown attorney Paul Zambonini suggested that Hudson had been robbed shortly before the shooting outside the safe injection site by some guys from Teesdale Place, but Hudson disagreed.

He testified the only time he had been robbed was in February 2023 when a drug dealer he referred to as the “Wiz from Teesdale” took his cellphone with all his clientele on it. The two were both doing drug deals at a trap house which Hudson explained was a place where drug addicts used drugs.

Hudson said he was satisfied that “the man in grey” was not the “Wiz from Teesdale” after the two talked a few days prior to the shooting.

Zambonini also pointed to text messages he’d sent to Mohammed about “smoking the Wiz from Teesdale.” Zambonini suggested Hudson was going to shoot the guy if she saw him again. Hudson disagreed, saying he was referring to fighting him.

In another text, Hudson wrote, “hanging with my opps, you gonna die with em.” Zambonini suggested it sounded threatening, but Hudson said it was just lyrics from a song by rapper Top5.

“I’m going to suggest it means if you hang with the Wiz from Teesdale, you’re going to die,” said Zambonini. Hudson denied it, saying it was totally meaningless and repeated that he knew the man in grey was not the “Wiz from Teesdale.”

Zambonini suggested again that Hudson had been robbed a short time earlier at the safe injection site. Hudson again rejected his theory.

“You would agree that drug dealers, if they thought that they were going to get robbed, it would make sense to arm yourself with a loaded handgun,” Zambonini asked.

“For me, personally, no,” replied Hudson.

Zambonini suggested that Mohammed was setting him up to be robbed, but Hudson replied he was concerned about her setting him up but not to get robbed.

“Set me up for whatever she was planning,” Hudson explained, saying he was worried she might be setting him to get arrested.

The cross-examination will continue on Wednesday.