Just before Lucki Pannell was shot, she was sitting on her front porch with her sister and two friends, Terry and BJ Jimenez.
On Monday, Terry Jimenez took the stand to tell jurors what happened the night of Feb. 19, 2011, and how he recognized Deangelo Williams as the shooter.
That night, sitting outside Pannell’s home on Sherman Avenue in Columbia Heights, Jimenez noticed a person at the bottom of the steps, he told the jury.
According to his testimony, the person reached the porch and began shooting. He did not see the gun, but he saw “sparks from it.”
The shooter, Jimenez said, was wearing a “ninja mask” with a hole exposing the shooter’s eyes and nose. Jimenez said he recognized the face, but “at the that time I didn’t know” from where.
His brother BJ was hit first, Jimenez said. BJ was shot “in the chest and fell back in his chair.”
According to Jimenez, Pannell “grabbed me. I turned my back to the shooter. He fired a couple more shots.”
“I tried to get Lucki over the rail but I don’t think she made it over,” Jimenez testified. “I made it over and ran.”
Jimenez heard someone behind him and, thinking it was the shooter, ran down Sherman Avenue towards Harvard Street, where he turned left and ran until he reached Georgia Avenue. Jimenez said he heard sirens. He turned around and saw police lights on Harvard Street behind him. He walked back and saw his brother BJ talking with police.
When he approached, Jimenez said police told him to back up. Jimenez told police that BJ “seemed like he was in pain.” Jimenez said that he could see the stuffing falling out of his brother’s down vest through the hole where he had been shot.
Only then did Jimenez notice that he had been shot. “My leg felt wet,” Jimenez told the court. “I seen a hole in my jeans and blood.”
According to prosecutors, the bullet passed through his leg and exited the other side.
Jimenez said the ambulance took him to Howard Hospital, where he was treated. He didn’t know what happened to Pannell until detectives came to his hospital room and told him Pannell had been shot, and that she died.
Jimenez testified that he called Pannell’s sister, Domonique, the following day. When she asked who shot her sister, Jimenez said he realized that he recognized the shooter as “Hoover D.,” using Williams’ nickname.
“That’s who the shooter was,” said Jimenez.
The trial will resume Tuesday at 10:15 a.m.
