“They sounded like firecrackers. It was a bunch of shots, and everyone started running.”
Everyone, Trevis Johnson said, but his friend Robert Foster Jr.
Testifying at trial Monday, Johnson told jurors how he and Foster came to be on Gresham Place the afternoon of the Carribean Festival in June 2011 when three men exchanged gunfire, catching the friends in their crossfire while the two men drank beers about a block from the parade route.
Deonte Bryant and Terrance Bush are charged in the case and have stood trial at DC Superior Court since Nov. 25. They are suspected of participating in the shootout which killed Foster and injured Johnson and Alecia Harrison.
Johnson, 41, told jurors Monday that the day of the shooting he took the subway with Foster and another friend to Petworth Metro station where the three walked to Georgia Avenue to enjoy the festival.
After about an hour, Johnson said, he and Foster went to a liquor store on the corner of Georgia Avenue and Gresham Place where they bought two 24-ounce cans of beer.
They then walked onto Gresham Place where they planned to drink the beers and head back to the festival, which was just a few feet away, Johnson said.
Johnson sat on the hood of a car with his back to the street, Foster sat on the sidewalk with his face to the street, and the two drank the beer and talked for about ten minutes, Johnson said.
Then the shots rang out.
“As I turned to my left, I heard some shots and saw a guy holding a black gun outward, and approaching me,” Johnson said. “So I ducked.”
Video footage shown in court Monday shows the man with the gun to be Terry Jimenez, a third codefendant in the case, who pleaded guilty to Foster’s murder in April.
Jimenez testified last week about his role in the shooting, and told jurors that he exchanged gunfire with Bryant and Bush after one of them fired the first shot.
Charging documents in the case allege that Bryant was a member of the “Clifton Terrace University” gang, a rival crew to Jimenez’s, “Hobart Stars.”
In the shootout, Foster was shot in the lower back and spinal cord. Johnson told jurors he was shot in his stomach and left leg, and that he saw Foster laying on the sidewalk moments after the shooting ended.
“He was on the ground and not moving, but I didn’t know that he had passed,” Johnson said.
Bryant’s defense attorney, Daniel Quillin, argued Monday that the shots that killed Foster were fired by Jimenez, and not Bush or Bryant. Johnson told jurors he didn’t know where the shots came from.
Closing arguments are expected in the case tomorrow.
Megan Arellano contributed to this report.
