Mothers of shooting victims injured and killed in the South Capitol Street shooting took the stand this week in the trial of five men charged with murder in the case.
Reported the Washington Post:
On Wednesday, Proctor, petite and wearing a ponytail, took the witness stand and identified herself as the mother of William Henry Jones III, a 19-year-old killed during the shootings, and a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the leg during a March 30 drive-by shooting.
Proctor’s testimony provided some of the trial’s most dramatic moments yet. Proctor, 40, often glared at the defendants as a prosecutor asked her questions — and, at one moment, went further.
“These bastards. These killers. These murderers,” Proctor yelled. The men — Sanquan Carter, 21; his brother Orlando, 22; Jeffrey Best, 23; Robert Bost, 23; and Lamar Williams, 23 — turned their heads, looked to the judge or looked down at notebooks.
Later in the week, an MPD officer involved in the arrest of a juvenile initially believed connected to the case— but later cleared— testified.
Reported the Washington Post:
Sgt. Laswaun Washington told prosecutors during testimony in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday that he identified the then-14-year-old as the minivan’s driver when the van passed his patrol car as he drove to the scene of another shooting nearby.
When he saw the minivan, Washington said, he made a U-turn and began pursuit.
Washington, who has been on the force for 11 years, told Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Hegyi that he was certain when he identified the teen to other officers on the night of the drive-by shooting.
During heated cross-examination Thursday, Rudolph Acree — who is defending Orlando Carter, 22, one of five men on trial for first-degree murder in a string of shootings that culminated March 30 — challenged Washington’s account.
Washington told Acree that he did not have a “good look” at the driver when the minivan passed him.
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