911 call heard in court during Peter Khill’s trial

The 911 call made minutes after Peter Khill shot and killed Jonathan Styres was played in court today.

Khill’s wife made the call after she heard a gun shot outside their rural Binbrook home. Today she took the stand at the second degree murder trial.

The Crown played the nearly 15 minute 911 call for the jury today. Khill’s wife Melinda Benko describes what happened that night, saying her then boyfriend had shot a man who was trying to steal their truck. Later in the call you can hear Khill telling the operator that he fired in self-defense after seeing Styres in the truck raising his arms as if he had a gun.

“It was pitch black, and it looked like he was literally about to shoot me, so I shot him.”

Peter Khill tells the 911 operator what happened. Minutes after he killed Jon Styres, a 29-year-old from Six Nations reserve.

“I just did CPR for, for probably six or seven minutes and he’s got nothing, no pulse.”

Benko, who is six months pregnant, testified today that while Khill was on a business trip on two separate occasions she heard what she believed was someone trying to unlock their back door using the electronic keypad. Saying she and Khill had been “on edge” in the days leading up to the shooting. She thought the noises she heard the night of February 4th 2016 could have been someone in the trying to get into the home.

In court today Benko said a loud noise woke her up around 3 in the morning. She then woke up Khill, they looked out the window and saw the lights on in his truck. He loaded his shotgun ad went outside. That’s when she says she saw a silhouette of a person inside the truck, heard a lot of loud muffled yelling and then a gun shot.

That’s when she called 911.

“He went out with a shotgun just ’cause we were both scared from the noise we heard.”

She told the court, “I was hoping Pete would shoot first if he had to.”

The jury heard that police didn’t find a gun on or near Styres, though they found a knife in his pocket.

Peter Khill has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. The Crown and Defense have agreed that Khill fired two lethal shot gun blasts.

The trial continues tomorrow and is expected to last 3-4 weeks.