“That’s fine, Mr. Adler,” the prosecutor said. “Go on.”
“Well, he just kept getting louder and louder, but it wasn’t doing a damn bit of good. Sorry. A darn bit of good. So that’s when he went up and tapped her on the shoulder. But I swear he never even really tapped. He reached out to tap, but by then she was already spinning around. And it was dusk, nearly dark, so the next thing I remember was the muzzle flashes. You could see the muzzle flashes from the gun real good in that light. I know there was sound. I know the shots were loud, but somehow that’s not what I remember. I just remember how that gun spit out this fire. It scared the bejesus out of me, because I was right behind him. Right behind Mr. Velez. I felt like she was shooting right at me, so I jumped out of the way. Lost my balance and slammed into this building and bruised my shoulder. And then I looked again, and she just kept firing. And firing. And firing. And I was thinking, like, What the hell? Even if a guy really was trying to steal your purse . . . I mean, why would anybody put that many bullets into anybody?”
The defense attorney struggled to his feet again, but he never got the chance to open his mouth.
“Sorry,” the witness said. “Right. I get it. Stick to the facts. Sorry. I get a little emotional talking about this, because it was a very bad experience witnessing it. I mean, I know not as bad as it was for Mr. Velez, but . . . Oops. I guess I just did it again. Okay, I get it. I’ll go back to just the facts.”
The defense attorney sighed and lowered himself heavily into his chair.
Raymond glanced over at Mrs. G. She had her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
“You okay?” he whispered.
“Tired,” she mouthed back.
But she looked more than just tired.
“Go on, Mr. Adler,” the prosecutor said.
“So, I guess she didn’t stop firing until there was nothing left to fire. I say that because I remember hearing a few dry clicks. Like there were no bullets left, but she was still pulling the trigger. And Mr. Velez was on the ground, and there was a lot of blood, more and more the longer he lay there, but she was still aiming the gun down at him and pulling the trigger. Click, click, click. And I thought . . . Oh, right. I’m not supposed to tell you what I thought.”
“Just tell us what happened next, Mr. Adler. After the shooting was over.”
“Well, there were all these people standing around. Just kind of staring. I think we were all in shock. I know I was. So this lady, the defendant, she starts looking around at all of us and saying, ‘You saw, right? He tried to steal my purse. See, it’s right there in his hand, my purse. You saw him try to take it, right? You’re my witnesses.’”
“Did you speak to her? Did you tell her you had seen things differently?”
“No, sir. Like I said, I was kind of in shock. So then all of a sudden there was a cop there. Like a beat cop, I think. I guess he heard the shots and came running. But I don’t think he saw the shooting with his own eyes, because he was asking what happened. And the woman, the defendant, she starts telling him the same stuff she was trying to tell us. ‘Oh, he took my purse. Look, you can see, it’s right there in his hand.’ I kept thinking this cop was going to tell her you can’t shoot a guy dead for that even if it’s true. But he didn’t say anything to her. He was calling on his radio. Calling for some sort of backup. And then . . . well . . . I feel kind of bad about this, but I was upset by what I’d seen, and I didn’t want to get involved, so I just slipped away.”
“You left the scene.”
“Yeah.”
“When did you decide you were willing to be a witness?”
“Couple days later. I was dreaming about it at night. It was giving me nightmares. It was just a terrible thing to see. And I started worrying that maybe nobody else stayed around and tried to be witnesses, either. I started worrying about the guy’s family. Like, maybe he had kids, which it turned out he did, but even if he didn’t have kids, he had parents, and what if this woman said he was a robber and nobody else said anything otherwise? That’s a terrible thing to be left with after your loved one is gone. So I walked into a police station and admitted what I saw.”
The prosecutor simply stood a moment, allowing silence to echo through the courtroom. He seemed not to want to cut the witness off if there was anything more the man cared to say.
“I thank you for coming here today to do your civic duty, Mr. Adler.” The witness only nodded, so he added, “No more questions, Your Honor.”