Body cam footage reveals officer’s final moments
CAYUGA—The first-degree murder trial of Randall McKenzie and Brandi Stewart-Sperry, charged in December 2022 for the death of Haldimand OPP Constable Greg Pierzchala, is underway at the Cayuga courthouse with Justice Andrew Goodman presiding.
Crown Attorney Fraser McCracken laid out a road map for the trial in his opening remarks on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
Of Pierzchala, McCracken said, “He took his training and his job seriously…. He was responding to what should have been a routine call.”
McCracken reviewed the events of December 27, 2022, beginning with a 911 call reporting an SUV in the ditch at Indian Line Road and Concession 14 Walpole. That vehicle, a black Nissan Armada, had been stolen the night before. Stewart-Sperry admitted to investigators to being at the scene that day, while McKenzie has not.
Various people stopped at the scene to help, including Veronica Tobicoe and her daughter Tomasina Hill.
Tobicoe is visible in Pierzchala’s body cam footage as he notified those involved of the recording camera. Stewart-Sperry is seen pulling up the blanket Tobicoe provided her to her face, while the male suspect, alleged to be McKenzie, turns away and becomes partially obscured behind Stewart-Sperry.
“I’m just trying to figure out what happened,” said Pierzchala in the video.
“I was looking at the navigation, and I swerved off,” responded Stewart-Sperry.
Seconds later, the male suspect steps forward with his hand pointed out in his jacket pocket and fires six bullets at Pierzchala. Pierzchala can be heard crying out in pain as he falls to the ground. The video ends there, with many courtroom attendees heard crying as it was played in court.
Four witnesses testified on day one of the trial. Those who interacted with Stewart-Sperry noted she appeared intoxicated or shell-shocked by the accident.
Tobicoe and her daughter took the stand on day two. Tobicoe, a member of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, said she was staying just down the road with her mom that day. A noise drew her to look outside, where she saw the vehicle in the ditch. Tobicoe and her daughter drove to the scene, used to accidents at that intersection.
“It’s just automatic … you grab something to cover them up,” she said of bringing blankets.
On arrival, she spoke to the daughter of the first witness, who told her that Stewart-Sperry appeared to be intoxicated. Tobicoe said she instructed the mother and daughter not to give them a ride into town as they were considering, and to leave it to the police to deal with.
“If they believed these individuals were drunk, I didn’t believe those individuals should be leaving the scene. It’s drinking and driving. It’s wrong,” she said, noting that a neighbour had already texted her that the police were on the way.
Tobicoe then approached the SUV, where she interacted with Stewart-Sperry, noting a cut on her upper lip and asking her if she was ok or had children in the vehicle.
“She was kind of panicky and jumping around,” said Tobicoe. “I had to literally tell her three or four times to shut the vehicle off.”
Tobicoe testified that Stewart-Sperry told her that the male occupant’s cousin had a tow truck, that the Nissan Armada belonged to her sister, and that the male in the vehicle was her boyfriend.
“I asked him ‘are you ok, are you ok?’ No answer. He didn’t talk to me; he was scrambling around in the back seat,” she said.
At that point, she said the male ran to her parked Chevy Silverado, and that both he and Stewart-Sperry repeatedly tried to enter the locked vehicle. She recalled telling her daughter to stand back and wait for the police to arrive.
“We turned around and looked and that’s when I seen the flashing lights of a cop car coming over the hill,” she said.
Constable Pierzchala then arrived, pulling up about 15-20 feet in front of her truck.
“I told him that’s their vehicle; she told me she was driving. He continued towards the front of my truck. I stood to the right … maybe five feet if that from the truck.”
That’s when the events recorded on video played out. At that moment, Tobicoe instructed her daughter to hide behind Pierzchala’s cruiser. She alleges the male suspect then turned to her and demanded the keys to her Silverado, while Pierzchala was collapsed on the road.
“I hollered at my daughter ‘get out of the way’ and I threw him my truck keys,” said Tobicoe. “I didn’t know if we were going to get shot or not.”
She recalled hearing Pierzchala’s response to the shots, describing them as “a hurt holler, a hurt moan, a hurt groan. He was on the ground, and we were trying to get away. I could still hear him hollering behind me as we turned.”
She also noted that while the Silverado was backed into the laneway and in the process of leaving, a black Ford truck pulled up. Tobicoe’s daughter told the driver what had just happened, and as that truck then attempted to T-bone the Silverado, she yelled to the driver that the male suspect had a gun and to let him go.
“All he had to do was turn sideways and shoot that guy,” said Tobicoe.
She described the male shooter’s appearance as roughly 6 feet tall, skinny and gaunt in the face, with tattoos on the side of his face, and “yellow and rotted” teeth.
“He looked native to me,” she said, noting he was wearing a black coat with a hood and a black ballcap, describing a “haunted” look in his eyes.
She described one of the shooter’s tattoos as the Five Nations symbol, admitting during cross-examination that such tattoos were not uncommon in her community, nor was the placement of the tattoo on the face/neck.
“The image plays over and over in my mind,” said Tobicoe of her ordeal.
Her daughter Tomasina Hill was the next witness. She corroborated Tobicoe’s account, recalling witnessing the shooter’s sweater pocket blow out as the shooter fired through it, and then staying with Pierzchala, trying to help until first responders arrived shortly after.
Following the driver in the black Ford trying to block the suspects from escaping, he chased them into Hagersville. In town, the Silverado turned quickly onto Howard Street, where another witness was standing. The pursuing Ford lost the vehicle then, as the Silverado hit a stop sign, puncturing a tire.
Using OnStar, police tracked the vehicle to a residence on Mississauga Road in Missisaugas of the Credit First Nation. Members of McKenzie’s family reside at the address. A CCTV system on the property showed two people exit the vehicle. Stewart-Sperry is later seen putting a blue tarp over the vehicle and trying to change the tire.
By the time police arrived, both suspects were gone, but a police helicopter picked up two heat signatures in the nearby woods behind the property.
Stewart-Sperry surrendered first at 6:26 p.m. She had a backpack with her containing a stolen vehicle ownership, an iPhone, and the Silverado keys.
A gunshot was then heard from the woods, and McKenzie emerged from the woods with his hands raised, throwing an object through the air, later identified as a Glock 19 handgun.
That gun was reviewed by a forensic team who matched a cartridge case found at the scene of Pierzchala’s shooting to it. McKenzie’s DNA was found on the gun, as well as inside the Nissan Armada in the ditch and in the stolen Silverado.
McKenzie’s sweater worn at the time of his arrest had a hole in the centre, and gunshot residue inside.
On McKenzie’s cell phone, officers found several text messages related to perpetrating violence against police officers, such as, “I can’t have love when all I can do is talk about shooting it out with the cops.”
Stay tuned to The Press for ongoing coverage until a verdict is reached.
