An Alberta power company worker believed he was a goner one summer day as he stood beside a rural road when two men drove up and one shot him through the arm.
Matthew Andres told court the pair wanted his keys and his truck and by the time it was over, he was in a race for his life and another man was dead.
Andres was testifying in Court of King’s Bench on Tuesday at the jury trial of Arthur Penner and Elijah Strawberry, who have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and attempted murder.
Crown prosecutor Photini Papadatou told the jury she will prove the two accused stole a vehicle and were looking to swap it out while setting the original vehicle ablaze when they approached Andres that day.
Andres was doing survey work in a field near a road east of Calgary on Aug. 6, 2024, when he heard a vehicle approach with what sounded like a flat tire.
He said he thought the passenger in the truck who approached him was going to ask for assistance.
“The next thing that happened was I felt the shot go through my arm,” Andres said.
“After I felt the shot, I turned to look at the individual and, yes, he did (have a weapon). A silver pistol. They were pointing it at my head.
“They said ‘Keys.’”
Andres told the individual that the keys were in his truck and the engine was running.
Get daily National news
Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.
“Take it,” he said.
Andres said he was approached by the two men a total of three times. He said he was lying flat on the ground and that he feared for the worst.
“I was screaming, ‘No!’ and, ‘Please!’ I thought I was going to die.”
Andres, 41, said when the pair moved toward his truck, he took a chance.
“I got up out of the ditch and started to run east along the pavement. Not very far, 20, 30 feet when I caught my toe and kind of tripped,” he said.
Andres said he threw off his red vest because it was drawing attention to him.
“I was trying to save my own life.”
He finally made it to a nearby road and hid in a ditch with high grass where he could see his vehicle that was now stuck in the ditch and the strangers’ truck engulfed in flames.
Andres jumped up and down trying to get the attention of approaching vehicles.
One of them was a white Rocky View County truck driven by 45-year-old Colin Hough.
Hough slowed as he approached the burning vehicle, said Andres. And that was when he saw the pair rush Hough’s truck, firing shots.
The Crown has said vehicle footage will show Hough staggering on the road after the shooting and collapsing dead as the accused roar off in his truck.
Colin Hough, who worked for Rocky View County, was killed in a shooting on Aug. 6, 2024.
CREDIT: GoFundMe
Andres, in the meantime, said he just kept running for his life.
“The next time I glanced back while I was still running I could just see (Hough’s truck) going north on the gravel road and a body wearing a red survey vest (lying) in the middle of the intersection.”
The jury also heard a recording of Andres’ frantic 911 call.
“There’s been a shooting. I’ve been shot in the arm,” he said.
“Anyone else?” asked the dispatcher.
“Yes. A Rocky View County employee pulled up and the gunman also shot him,” Andres added.
“He…pointed a gun right at my head.”
While he was on the phone, a truck stopped to see if he needed help.
“There’s a vehicle coming down the road. Help, help, help, help, stop. There’s been a shooting up there,” he yelled at an approaching vehicle.
The Crown says a .45-calibre bullet was found where Hough had collapsed and a 9-mm shell casing found near where Andres was hit.
Hough’s vehicle was later found abandoned.
Penner, 37, was arrested five days later in Edmonton and Strawberry, 29, was found after a month hiding in a residence on the O’Chiese First Nation near Rocky Mountain House.
© 2026 The Canadian Press