A Crown witness contradicted testimony Wednesday from another onlooker who earlier identified Brandon Schell as the man holding a gun after a shooting in a downtown crack house.

Emil Tralnberg testified in the trial of Brandon Schell, who is accused of extortion, firing a prohibited weapon and assault.

None of the men in the Seymour Street apartment Nov. 5 last year has been able to identify Schell as firing the shot, including his victim Arthur Burley.

The Crown alleges Schell and another man, Trevor Taylor, were strong-arming crack addicts into buying drugs only from them. Burley was shot after he stood up to challenge them.

On Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court, another witness, Robert Lessard, said he was sleeping in a bedroom when he was awakened by a shot. He came out of the bedroom to see Schell, whom he identified in the courtroom, holding a gun.

But Tralnberg contradicted that evidence Wednesday. He testified that Lessard didn’t emerge from the bedroom until hours after the shooting.

“I don’t recall him (Lessard) being there until (later) that morning,” Tralnberg said.

Like every other witness, Tralnberg resisted talking to police afterward about the shooting.

“I didn’t want to be involved in any of it,” he said.

An arrest warrant was mistakenly issued for the 41-year-old witness last week when he didn’t show up to testify. It was later learned he was never personally served with a subpoena.

While Lessard said everyone in the room that night, except for the two drug enforcers and Burley, were doing crack cocaine, Tralnberg denied that accusation. He said he only tried crack once, more than 10 years ago.

He said he also didn’t see any drug paraphernalia that evening. Police photographs presented earlier, however, showed a crack pipe, along with other materials used by crack addicts.

Tralnberg, who worked as an automotive detailer and has spent time living on the streets, also acknowledged he suffered a head injury in past and his memory is “crap.”

The trial is expected to continue Thursday.