Tom Gill and his wife had turned in for the night when they heard the gunshots.

"It sounded like a firecracker," the Surrey councillor said.

"Pop-pop-pop."

Gill was testifying Thursday at the trial of Bacon brothers Jamie and Jarrod, who were charged with multiple weapons offences following the April 13, 2007 attempted assassination of Jamie Bacon.

At the time, the Bacon family was renting a five-year-old two-storey Craftsman-style house in the 15800 block of 106 Avenue next to a nearly identical house owned by the Gill family.

Upon hearing the noise, Gill leapt out of bed and called 911.

He ran downstairs in his pyjamas to check the front door was locked, then he went back upstairs.

He could hear voices coming from the back of the Bacon residence.

When he looked out an upper-floor window, Gill said he could see two people in the backyard of the Bacon home.

One appeared to be wearing a "dark-coloured vest" that looked like a bullet-proof vest to Gill.

He couldn't clearly identify the two men, but he said he also saw them apparently searching through a Corvette in the front driveway of the Bacon house.

The sports car was one of several shiny new vehicles driven by the Bacons, who had moved in about a month before the shooting incident.

"My son really liked that car," Gill said.

The Gills' downstairs tenant was awake when the shooting started.

Angela Kaspizk said she was watching television just after midnight when she heard four shots close together.

"My heart was racing," she told the court.

"It sounded like it was outside my window."

She also heard what sounded like three loud bangs on the side of the house next door and a loud male voice.

"Open the f-----g door," the man shouted.

She turned off her lights and took shelter in her bedroom.

Down the street, Tim Conrad was smoking a cigarette while leaning outside the window of his upstairs bedroom when he said he heard seven gunshots.

Conrad testified earlier in the week that he observed a white SUV, either a Ford Expedition or Explorer, fleeing the scene.

The attempted murder of Jamie Bacon, who was fired on as he arrived home in his Corvette, led to the current criminal trial involving the brothers.

They were charged after the RCMP found a concealed compartment with guns and ammunition inside a Chevy Suburban parked in the Bacon family garage following the shooting.

The defence lawyers said the police did not have a proper warrant to search the Suburban while Crown prosecutors argue the police had obtained a warrant three days before the shooting incident to install a secret tracking device in the SUV.

It was while police technicians were installing the tracker that the secret compartment was discovered, the prosecution said.

The issue of whether the evidence is admissible will be decided later in the trial.

The Crown has admitted that police violated the Bacons' rights by searching and photographing the inside of the house without waiting for a warrant, but maintain that wasn't enough to invalidate the uncovering of the hidden weapons.

During the house search, police discovered images of a concealed weapons compartment on a computer, something the defence said proves the police didn't simply stumble over the guns in the Suburban.

In the wake of the shooting incident, the Bacons moved back to Abbotsford, while the Gill family moved out of the neighbourhood.

Tom Gill says the shooting incident was not the only reason for the move.

"There were other issues," he told reporters outside court.

dferguson@surreyleader.com