The defense and prosecution agree: There's no question that Edward Lamont Hunt ran away from Officer Tommy Sanders in January 2008 in the Hamilton Park Shopping Center in Northeast Baltimore.
But whether that meant he was resisting arrest, or justified Sanders' firing his gun three times, striking Hunt in the back twice, is another matter, attorneys argued Tuesday.
The jury trial of Sanders, charged with voluntary manslaughter in Hunt's shooting death, began Tuesday with defense attorney Michael J. Belsky vowing to prove that the officer's response to Hunt's attempt to evade arrest was in line with his training.
"This isn't just a case about manslaughter," Belsky told jurors. "This is a case about a man who made a decision that 'I'm not going to be arrested.' "
Detectives didn't find a gun at the scene of the shooting, but said they found drugs. Belsky said Tuesday that Hunt had marijuana.
Lisa Goldberg, assistant state's attorney, said she would prove that Hunt did not pose a threat to the officer, and a former employee of the Baltimore City police's mobile crime lab unit testified that drugs were not among the items recovered from the scene and submitted into evidence.
A grand jury indicted Sanders in July on charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, making Sanders the first Baltimore police officer to be indicted in a duty-related shooting since 1996.
Belsky said that Sanders was "thrust into a nightmare situation, with a second to respond," when he thought he saw Hunt reaching into his pocket.
The officer had reason to believe he was in danger, Belsky said. Just seven months before Hunt was killed, he was charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, for which he received probation. He faced two years in jail if he were to be arrested again, Belsky told jurors.
He used alliteration to drum his arguments into jurors' heads, saying that Hunt made the mistake of engaging in "The 3 R's" that police officers are trained to defend against: resisting, running and reaching.
"Those are the three warning signs," Belsky said. Sanders "had not one, not two, but three red flags."
Belsky, who plans to call experts on police use-of-force protocols, said he was confident that the evidence would show his client's actions were "right, reasonable and rational." Sanders is expected to take the stand.
The prosecution said that overwhelming witness testimony would prove that Hunt made no attempt to threaten the officer, only to escape.
"The evidence will show, from the people that were there, that Edward Hunt did not need to die," Goldberg argued.
"What will be the same [in their testimony] is that what people saw was Edward Hunt running away," she said. "That is very important."
The state called eight witnesses Tuesday, and most said they never saw Hunt assault the officer, and that his hands were always on his head when he was being searched, and in a running motion as he attempted to flee.
Most of the witnesses recounted the incident's starting with Sanders approaching Hunt in his police vehicle and searching him twice shortly after they exchanged words.
The stop was prompted, the attorneys said, by a tip that Hunt was a drug dealer.
At some point, Hunt ran away from the officer, who attempted to grab him, witnesses said. When the attempt was unsuccessful, the officer drew his weapon and fired as he chased Hunt.
At least three shots were fired, witnesses said, before Hunt was on the ground in front of Murry's supermarket.
The strongest testimony of the day came from Edward Moore.
Moore, who had been in his car in the parking lot, said he'd engaged in a "stare-down" with Hunt right before the officer approached. After the shooting, he saw Hunt "get a spacy look" as he took his last breath.
"When you in the streets, you feel death coming," Moore told jurors. "I've done a lot of things in my life, I've seen a lot of people die. I just wasn't prepared for that."
The defense tried to discredit the handful of witnesses who said that Sanders' search included going through Hunt's coat pockets. Belsky pointed out that they did not provide that detail in their statements in 2008. The defense also challenged witnesses about whether they were in a position to see or hear from the officer's perspective during his exchange with Hunt.
Belsky said he and his client would not comment until the trial is complete.
Hunt's family traveled from Lynchburg, Va., to attend the trial. They said they were confident in the witnesses' testimony and wanted to hear why a trained officer needed to shoot Hunt twice.
"Our prayer is just that justice is served," said Hunt's mother, Sheryl Hunt. "There's just no justification for what happened."
The trial is set to resume Wednesday morning.