HUNTER: Accused cop killer texted ‘I’m going to shoot it out with cops’

CAYUGA — The foreshadowing was a dire warning that would tragically come to pass.

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Randall McKenzie allegedly wrote in a text on Dec. 14, 2022: “I’m going to do some ATM (a psychedelic stimulant) and shoot it out with cops.”

Six days later: “I can’t have love when all I can do is talk about shooting out with the cops.”

By dusk on Dec. 27, 2022, rookie OPP Const. Grzegorz “Greg” Pierzchala would be dead at 28. He had just passed his probation that morning.

McKenzie and his then-girlfriend Brandi Stewart-Sperry are now on trial for the first-degree murder of Pierzchala on a rural road outside Hagersville two days after Christmas.

The jury trial began Thursday at the historic Cayuga Courthouse, erected in 1851 at the height of Queen Victoria’s reign when the sun never set on the British Empire. The courtroom could stand in for a film noir melodrama with its 35-foot high ceilings, proud displays of Canadiana and the country’s British heritage.

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Both McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry look significantly healthier than they did in their mugshots that featured running mascara, gaunt faces and eyes as old as tombs.

On Thursday, he wore gray.

She wore black.

The cops wore blue.

Prosecutor Fraser McCracken outlined for the nine women and five men on the jury the details of that horrible December day in Haldimand County.

“Randall McKenzie is the shooter and … Brandi Stewart-Sperry aided in the murder of Grzegorz Pierzchala. He was 28 and had been a constable for 10 months,” McCracken told the jury. “He took his training and his job seriously.”

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But at 2:28 p.m., police received a report of a Nissan Armada SUV in the ditch on Indian Line. It was the kind of routine call the OPP takes a thousand times daily from Kenora to Cornwall.

It would be anything but routine.

Two witnesses testified they encountered Stewart-Sperry at the side of the road waving for help. She seemed agitated, maybe stoned, both agreed. One person offered a ride. Another called a cab for the woman and the man they saw rummaging around the SUV.

The officer who responded to the scene was OPP Const. Grzegorz “Greg” Pierzchala. He was equipped with a body camera that he switched on when he arrived at the scene.

The camera would record his cold-blooded murder. Six bullets in all. The slugs hit his chest, liver, heart, lung, thigh, the abdominal wall, pelvis and thorax.

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Jurors were warned that they would see the video of Pierzchala’s death.

He would die a short time later in hospital.

Pierzchala never had time to draw his service weapon. The shooting was over in 30 seconds.

McCracken alleged McKenzie fired a Glock 19 from the Kangaroo pouch of his dark Adidas hoodie.

McKenzie and Stewart-Sperry then allegedly stole the pickup truck of another concerned woman who had stopped to see if she could help, McCracken said, adding the pair then engaged in high-speed, hazardous driving as they fled the scene, nearly hitting a transport truck head-on.

At a relative’s home, the prosecutor said the couple made out while scrambling to make their next move. Hours later, they were arrested.

Both Stewart-Sperry and McKenzie have pleaded not guilty and are being tried together.

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The trial, expected to last five to six weeks, is being heard by the noted Justice Andrew Goodman, who also presided over the high-profile 2016 Tim Bosma murder trial.

In a statement, the OPP said: “This is a challenging time for Ontario Provincial Police members, families and the entire policing community. Since this case is currently before the courts, we are unable to provide any comments to maintain the integrity of the court proceedings.”

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Outside the Cayuga Courthouse, a statue on the front lawn honours the Haldimand County men who died fighting for Canada in the Boer War.

It might also act as a stand-in for the men and women dying here on the homefront in the war on crime. Young men like OPP Const. Grzegorz “Greg” Pierzchala.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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