‘Very severe injuries’: Pathologist says victim of alleged backpack robbery in Calgary had minutes to live

Jordan Jacques-Vetten died when he was shot in an attempted robbery in the Capital Hill neighbourhood of northwest Calgary in 2023. (Photo: CTV Calgary)

A police bodycam video showing the immediate aftermath of a deadly shooting in Calgary’s Capitol Hill neighborhood two years ago was played in court Wednesday, during the second-degree murder trial for Robert Joseph Matthews.

Matthews, 27, is one of two men accused of killing Jordan Jacques-Vetten, 33, after he allegedly wouldn’t give up his backpack in a robbery gone wrong early in the morning on September 9th, 2023 in the 1700 block of 18th Avenue N.W.

The video shows two officers arriving on scene to discover pools of blood leading to the door of a home and Jacques-Vetten collapsed in a pool of blood on the front porch.

In the video they check his pulse and cut his backpack off before discovering a gunshot wound to his front chest.

Dr. Thamogran Pillay, a forensic pathologist, testified Wednesday that Jacques-Vetten’s injuries from the shooting were “very severe.”

He told the court the victim would have only survived around five minutes to a maximum of ten minutes before losing consciousness and collapsing.

He said his injuries were consistent with Jacques-Vetten having been at the front door of the home before collapsing on the front porch.

Pillay also found a number of blunt force trauma abrasions and scrapes to his eyebrow, eyelid and jaw area, which he said would be consistent with falling and hitting the porch railing, bench or rock features.

The Crown argues Matthews made plans to rob people with loaded firearms that evening, had discussed shooting people with his co-accused, and confessed to the killing to a female friend.

An 18-year-old man from Chestermere was also charged in the shooting but cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was a youth at the time of the killing.