Witness filmed armed suspect fleeing Whistler hotel where two men were shot dead

A Lower Mainland woman testified she recorded a gunman running from the Sundial Hotel in Whistler in July 2022, where Meninder Dhaliwal and Satindera Gill were fatally shot.

Whistler tourist captured gunman on video after fatal Sundial Hotel shootings

A Lower Mainland woman vacationing in Whistler recorded a man carrying a gun as he fled the scene of a double murder at a neighbouring hotel, the B.C. Supreme Court heard Thursday.

Erin Best was on the sixth-floor patio of the Pan Pacific Mountainside Hotel on July 24, 2022, when gunshots rang out from the adjacent Sundial Hotel just after noon, Vancouver Sun Crime reports. She grabbed her iPhone and began filming as a person ran past below, weapon in hand.

"I looked over the railing to see what was happening below, facing the Sundial Crescent, and I could hear several gunshots and people screaming, and I saw people running away from the Sundial Hotel," Best told 12 jurors and Justice Miriam Gropper.

Best is testifying at the murder trial of Gursimran Sahota and Tanvir Khakh, who are charged with the fatal shootings of Meninder Dhaliwal and Satindera Gill that day. The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Suspect boarded waiting vehicle

Best said she initially dismissed the first sound as an ordinary loud noise, but quickly understood what she was hearing.

"I didn't think too much of the loud noise until I heard several more loud bangs, which then it became evident that I was hearing gunshots," she testified.

Her friend Victoria Dickinson had stepped out to do laundry at the moment the shooting began. Best called out to her when she returned: "Those were gunshots." The two women stepped onto the patio together as Best unlocked her phone and started recording.

In the footage, Best watched the armed individual move toward a car that had pulled up alongside them. "The person with the gun veered toward a car that pulled up beside them, entered the car, and the car headed up Sundial Crescent toward Blackcomb Way," she told the court. She lost sight of the vehicle when it passed behind a bush and could not confirm which direction it turned. She then stopped recording and called 911.

Best estimated she heard between six and ten gunshots in rapid succession and acknowledged she could not determine whether one or more firearms were involved. She later saw one of the victims lying near the entrance to the Sundial Hotel.

Grey Honda SUV recovered with two guns

The short video Best recorded was played in court. It showed a grey Honda SUV moving quickly along Sundial Crescent before disappearing behind foliage.

Crown prosecutor Fatemeh Nejatali told the court in her opening submissions that evidence would show a vehicle found in another Whistler neighbourhood shortly after the shooting "matched descriptions of the car used by the two gunmen to flee the scene of the shooting." Two firearms were subsequently recovered from the Honda, Nejatali said.

Best acknowledged she could not describe the suspect's clothing or physical appearance in detail, given her elevated vantage point on the sixth floor. "I can't recall the exact type of clothing that they were wearing. I do remember that they were holding a gun in their hand, and I was fairly certain I had observed some black gloves behind that gun," she said.

Sahota and Khakh face charges in connection with the killings of Dhaliwal and Gill at the Whistler resort in the summer of 2022.

Source: Vancouver Sun Crime