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46 BCBusiness dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018 COPyRiGhT niGEl hORslEy upstairs, and he'd like me to move in.' I said I didn't think it was a good idea." But Battersby persisted. "So I sat down with them and drew up a con- tract," Dragan says. "I said, 'At the end of 90 days, if it isn't working out for whatever reason, Gerry, you are leaving.' And I had told him I had no more work for him after September. He'd have to nd something else." Things at the Kerrisdale house degenerated quickly. By December, police had been called about a physi- cal altercation between the room- mates. "I said to Gerry, 'You've gotta go,'" Dragan recounts. "'You need to be out by the end of the month.' Finally got him out of the house by the end of April. The place was stacked high with newspapers, pieces of string, plastic margarine containers—the guy was a hoarder. I separated the good stu' and put it in the carport with a tarp over it. Eventually I got a text from him saying, 'You asshole, you put all my stu' out in the rain.'" Someone had apparently removed Battersby's goods from the carport. Dragan doesn't know who, but he suspects Joel had something to do with it. Battersby was enraged. His brother, Carl, later told CBC News reporter Bal Brach about a conversation he had with Gerald: "He says, 'Don't be surprised if you hear I've gone and killed somebody.'" As it turns out, Battersby hadn't lost all of his most valuable possessions. Somehow, along with the newspapers, margarine tubs and bits of string, he had managed to acquire a .44 revolver. s urveillance video from June 10, 2014, shows Battersby on his bicycle hang- ing around the foot of Davie Street. By 11:13 a.m., Dragan and then–Reckless store manager Lee Miller are sitting out front of Starbucks as Battersby is seen striding toward them. Visible behind him is a blue Ford Focus, waiting for a parking spot. Inside are two Vancouver Police detectives, Christopher Berda and Glynis Gri…ths, on a routine co'ee run. You can meet a lot of people at a Starbucks— baristas, small business owners, doctors, life- guards, police o…cers. At 11:14 a.m., all of those are present at the south Davie branch. Physician Cli'ord Chase is in the lineup. The cops have just pulled up to the curb when shouting is heard from the sidewalk. Berda recalls: "Glynis looks back and says, 'What's going on over here?' I look out the rear passenger window and see a gun come up. A very big gun." "You screwed me over," Battersby shouts. "The shot was deafening," Berda remembers. Dragan is hit in the upper right chest. According to Miller, Dragan manages to say, "Gerry, you shot me." Then he falls. Berda and Gri…ths are now out of their car, guns drawn, shouting, "Police! Drop the gun!" Battersby res at them while backing away around the corner. The o…cers shoot back. One of Berda's bullets blows out the lobby glass of the Aquarius 1 condo tower. "My fear is he's going to make his way into that building," Berda says. "I want to stop him from barricading himself." Next door at Provence Marinaside restaurant, maître d' Emrys Horton recognizes the sound of gunre and yells at his sta'ers to take cover in the kitchen. As Horton calls 911, several diners have their phones out to record the scene. "One woman runs to the window to see," he says, "and a bullet hits the building probably two inches from where she is standing." Battersby is now on the seawall. The o…cers are holding their re—"The park is full of people," Berda says. Sirens are growing louder. A re truck arrives. "We have enough people in Yaletown," Berda tells dispatch. "Start sending them to Science World." Chase reaches Dragan moments after the shooting. "He was bleeding to death," Chase says. Rolling him onto his side, Chase sees an exit wound at least six inches wide. With the Starbucks sta' pressed into service as trauma nurses (our apologies, ma'am—your low-fat vanilla latte may be delayed), he calls for a large towel and jams it into the hole in Dragan's back. Still, Chase says later, "I didn't think he'd even make it to the operating room." "From the time we were dispatched to the time we reached VGH was 14 minutes. Some- times, when we're having a beer with other paramedics, they want to call bullshit on that" — Jason Davies, paramedic No TImE To wASTE First responders move Dragan to an ambulance

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