SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Emrah Bulatci was selling drugs at a well known Hay River crack house in the days leading up to RCMP Const. Christopher Worden's death, a witness told court Monday on day four of Bulatci's murder trial.

Bulatci, who is charged with first degree murder in the Mountie's death, was at the crack house the day of Worden's death on Oct. 6, 2007, playing video games in the downstairs bedroom, testified Rachel Martel, who ran and lived in the house.

There Bulatci sold drugs and traded crack, providing her with the drug in exchange for the use of the downstairs area of her home and her television, she said. Martel added that she facilitated drug deals by taking money from customers and handing them the drugs that Bulatci and his friends gave her in return.

At the time, Martel also sold crack cocaine to support her 15-gram, $2,000 per day habit. The 44-year-old recently served jail time for trafficking.

On the night of Oct. 5, 2007, there was a birthday party in the upstairs half of her house. In the downstairs half Bulatci and his friends were playing X-Box video games and selling crack cocaine, the woman said.

The party lasted into the morning hours, with Bulatci calling a cab for himself and his two friends close to 6 a.m. on Oct. 6, she said.

Martel locked the door behind them, smoked half the gram of crack Bulatci gave her. Within minutes she heard six gunshots, she said. Worden was shot four times.

"Sometimes when you're high you can hear echoes," she said.

After hearing the shots, the woman looked down the hallway and then "I went and grabbed a 60-pounder (of whisky) that was three-quarters full and I drank it," she said.

She woke up later that morning to a group of six or seven police officers pounding on her door, she said.

"They were yelling, 'Where is he, where is he?' I didn't know who they were talking about. They said, 'Where is Worden?' I said I didn't know. He didn't come to my house," she said.

Following a five or 10-minute search, police cordoned off her house, while she watched them search the field near her home, Martel said. The woman saw a bylaw officer enter the field first "and all of the sudden he started throwing up."

"He said something and all the cops started rushing ... and then an ambulance came and they took Worden away," she testified, using a tissue to wipe tears away as her voice broke.

The court also heard from the taxi driver who arrived at the crack house Oct. 6 to pick up Bulatci and his two friends. Soren Neilsen testified to seeing Worden arrive at the house. Worden was there looking for a reportedly suicidal man, the cabbie recalled, as Bulatci was leaving the residence and approaching the cab. His two friends were already inside the car.

"The third person came out and (Worden) lost interest in the guys in the cab and approached him. They started talking," testified the driver.

The driver watched Worden order Bulatci to place his hands on the rear of the cab. The "constable was starting to frisk him and all of the sudden he (Bulatci) took off," he said.

The driver said he watched Worden chase Bulatci and heard him yell at Bulatci to stop, before losing sight of them.

"A little while later I heard shots ... two double taps - two shots fired rapidly together. I heard it twice," said Neilsen.

Neither of the men got out of the cab.

"They said, 'Get the hell out of here,'" the driver testified. He said he drove them home, went to gas up his car and did not take any more fares that morning before his shift ended shortly thereafter.

The taxi driver did not call the police.

"I thought it was the officer shooting," he said.

Last week, Bulatci attempted to plead guilty to manslaughter. Crown lawyers rejected his plea.