An Uber driver recounted a harrowing encounter with a blood-stained man who confessed to killing his mother, during a murder trial in Calgary on Tuesday. Shaneef Virani testified that he was approached by a disheveled individual while waiting for a fare near Foothills Medical Centre.
Blood-Stained Encounter
Virani described the man as a 'crazy guy in the middle of the street,' covered in blood. 'He was all bloodied,' Virani told Crown prosecutor Vicki Faulkner. When asked what he could do to help, the man replied, 'I just killed my mom, please call 911.'
Virani said he initially thought the man was his ride, but quickly realized otherwise. 'His hands were bloodied,' he noted. Fearing for his safety, Virani locked the door, kept the vehicle in drive, and prepared to flee. 'I did not know what he was capable of doing or what happened,' he explained.
The man pointed toward houses on the east side of Foothills, but Virani kept his eyes fixed on him. He promised to call emergency services after dropping off his fare. When he made the pickup, he took a different route, telling his passenger about the 'crazy guy in the middle of the street.'
Evidence and Testimony
CCTV footage from the hospital showed Virani's white minivan stopping at an intersection on the east side at 3:17 a.m. on June 30, 2023. A man, identified by the Crown as accused murderer Alex (Aixin) Xu, walked calmly down 29th Street N.W. and approached the driver's side door.
Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Dale Fedorchuk, Virani agreed that the man did not appear to be pointing east while confessing. Xu, 23, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Alice (Jingying) Ai. Co-prosecutor Paul Marcellus told jurors that Xu bludgeoned his mother to death with a boulder between two homes on 29th Street shortly before the encounter.
Jurors were briefly shown graphic crime scene photographs of Ai's body. Before admitting them, Justice Robert Armstrong warned the jury to not let the disturbing images influence their deliberations. The trial is scheduled for five weeks but is not expected to last that long.
