It all happened very fast, less than seven seconds, what would be the final moments of Brandon Volpi’s life. The brawl outside Les Suites Hotel in downtown Ottawa, caught on cellphone camera from third and tenth floor hotel balconies. You can hear students screaming. A melee.
Devontay Hackett, then 18, wearing all white. Brandon Volpi, 18, wearing all black. The pair caught up in the dual. Then Hackett flees, Volpi comes to his feet, swaying side to side and looking stunned. He’s helped by friends and security guards in front of the hotel until paramedics arrive.
The fight at 3:31am, part of a chilling police video timeline of the events before and after the June 7, 2014 prom-night murder.
The timeline, released to the public Wednesday, is part of the Crown’s evidence in the Hackett’s second-degree murder trial.
The videos track Hackett’s movements before and after the fight.
The timeline begins at 3:17am, when you see Hackett walk in to Les Suites, waving his arms, before getting into the elevator. He emerges six-minutes later, Police Video Expert Mike Ross says Hackett appears to have something in his right hand.
Another student, Mauricio Rodriguez, runs into the hotel. The Crown alleges Rodriguez was running from Hackett and that the two were in an altercation over a cellphone. They say Rodriguez was scared.
The surveillance camera then shows a large group walk into Les Suites, Hackett is in the back, waiting at the front entrance of the hotel. Pacing. He eventually goes in the lobby. Ross says Rodriguez was in the crowd, the Crown alleging he was getting help from classmates, including Volpi, they were going to walk him to safety at his hotel, The Novotel, next door.
You see words exchanged. Hackett waves the crowd. The group, including Volpi, files out of the hotel. That’s when the fight breaks out.
After the fight, Hackett flees to a vehicle parked in a nearby alleyway. The man all dressed in white, along with another individual, are then caught on city cameras heading away from the hotel, walking through uOttawa, boarding a 95 bus. The pair is then seen in an Ottawa cab one-hour after the stabbing.
Devontay Hackett has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. The trial is expected to last five-weeks.
