Chattanooga: Friends of victim testify about events surrounding shooting

photo Jamaal Byrd talks with one of his lawyers, Ryan Hanzelik, during the opening of his trial Tuesday. Byrd is accused of shooting and killing Terrance Etchison at the Wilcox Boulevard Kanku's in 2012.

Two friends of the victim in a 2010 shooting testified this morning that he had no weapon when killed.

Video footage played during the trial shows Jamaal Byrd, 32, shot and killed Terrance Etchison at the Wilcox Boulevard Kanku's gas station on Feb. 27, 2010.

Spencer McPherson, 18, and Charvez Harris, 21, testified today that neither saw Etchison with a weapon before the shooting.

Byrd's attorneys claim he fired in self-defense after Etchison threatened him inside the gas station.

Prosecutors say that Byrd left the store, retrieved and loaded his revolver and waited for Etchison to approach him before shooting him once in the chest and driving away.

But defense attorneys have picked at prosecution witnesses' recollections of the night of the shooting and whether a possible weapon was taken off of Etchison's body before police arrived.

Today is the second day of the trial, which both sides expect to last until at least Thursday.

For more see tomorrow's Times Free Press.

Upcoming Events