Ratcliffe accusation ‘collateral damage’ of brotherly love: Defence in Windsor trial

The trial for a shooting outside of a Windsor bowling alley continued in courts Thursday.

Fernando Ratcliffe, now 26 years old, denies being the person who opened fire in a drive-by shooting on April 9, 2022.

Defence lawyer Devin Bains told Justice Bruce Thomas Thursday, convicting Ratcliffe would be a miscarriage of justice.

Ratcliffe has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder, discharging a firearm, and being in a vehicle with a loaded handgun.

Five people suffered survivable gunshot wounds when someone in a pickup truck fired a handgun into a crowd gathered out front of an East Windsor bowling alley.

Just moments before, three of the occupants in the truck were involved in a short fight inside the establishment, including the driver Joshua Fryer, 23, and his brother Andrew Meloche, 25.

Fryer’s then-girlfriend was also in the truck as was Ratcliffe.

Fryer testified this week that by process of elimination the shooter had to be Ratcliffe while Meloche changed his evidence Tuesday and told the court he now doesn’t remember the shooting.

“In my view, their testimony was directed toward the protection of themselves, and each other and that Mr. Ratcliffe was unfortunate collateral damage in that effort,” Bains said Thursday.

He said the love the brothers have for each other was “palpable” during this week’s evidence.

“There are sometimes unspoken oaths, that compete with oaths taken in the courtroom,” Bains said.

“Their commitment to each other has caused inexcusable harm to Fernando Ratcliffe.”

Bains argued Ratcliffe had no reason to open fire on the group of strangers that night because he wasn’t involved in the fight inside; Fryer and Meloche were both part of it.

There was also evidence from several witnesses who reported hearing a woman “command” someone in the truck to “shoot those (n-words)”.

Bains argued Fryer was the only person in the truck who could be swayed by his girlfriend’s direction and had the motive to retaliate for being injured in the earlier melee.

“Whatever fondness they (Fryer and Meloche) had for Mr. Ratcliffe as a friend – not a best friend, not a close friend – it could not compete with the need to protect, in particular, Mr. Fryer who I submit, the preponderance of the strong evidence suggests is the shooter,” Bains said.

The lawyer questioned the logic of Fryer’s evidence at trial that the gunman used the open front driver’s side window to shoot at the strangers.

“It is logistically awkward for anyone in Mr. Ratcliffe’s position at that time; behind the driver, leaning through to shoot backward out the front window,” Bains argued.

“Awkward doesn’t mean impossible but it is awkward.”

In the lengthy Agreed Statement of Fact before the court, eyewitness accounts vary.

Some identify the shooter as a white male, in the driver’s seat who crossed his right arm over his body to aim and fire the handgun.

Others said the bullets came from the backseat.

“There’s almost universal inconsistency in that almost no two people have the same account,” Deputy Crown Attorney Bryan Pillon said Thursday.

“Not uncommon in these types of situations,” Justice Bruce Thomas inserted.

“They last for a second. They are very traumatic, and afterwards everybody’s trying to remember what exactly happened, but nobody has the same version.”

Pillon admitted the Crown case had “frailties”.

On motive, Pillon reminded the court, the fight lasted just a few minutes.

“If a relatively minor fight inside the bowling alley was enough to motivate someone to commit this senseless crime, then they didn’t need much persuading,” Pillon argued.

Pillon also said Fryer was a “credible witness” who could have “stretched his evidence”, particularly the parts that don’t paint him in the most favourable light.

Pillon said attempted murder is “notoriously” hard to prove, because they can prove there was bodily harm but not that the shooter wanted those specific people to be killed.

He suggested the judge could consider convictions for aggravated assault, as a lesser and included offence for attempted murder.

To this day, the gun used in the shooting has not been recovered and the court does not know what Ratcliffe did after it happened.

He turned himself into police nearly six weeks later, after police published his image as a person of interest.

Fryer testified he tried to burn the clothes he was wearing that night because of the blood stains and he threw away the spent shell casings that were inside his truck.

He and Meloche were arrested by police within days of the shooting.

Fryer and Meloche pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of being in a vehicle with a loaded firearm in 2025 and both were sentenced to eight months house arrest.

Meloche told the court this week, he did that to “get out of jail”.

Justice Bruce Thomas said Thursday as a result of the detailed Agreement Statement of Fact saving “weeks” of valuable court time, he wants to conclude the Ratcliffe matter this week and will have his judgment Friday afternoon.