Updated: 7:45 p.m.
Numerous people were called to take the stand Tuesday afternoon in the trial of Rayquan Borum—including a man who says he was with Borum the night Justin Carr was shot. Carr was shot the second night of protests that erupted in Charlotte after the police shooting death of Keith Scott in September 2016.
Kendell Bowden, who is currently serving a federal sentence related to aggravated identity theft and bank fraud conspiracy, testified he was one of several people with Borum that night. He stated that he heard Borum chant profane comments about police.
“He was screaming ‘F the police’ and ‘grip a glock, shoot back,’” Bowden said during his testimony.
The state then played video evidence from a documentarian who was outside the Omni before and right after Carr was injured. Although the person who is chanting is off camera, the phrase “Grip a glock, shoot back” is heard numerous times. The state argues that the voice belongs to Borum.
When prosecutors asked Bowden why he stayed with Borum that night, he responded that he didn’t think Borum was serious.
“Being in the attire he had on I didn’t think he was armed,” Bowden said. “I mean, all of us was upset. Everyone was chanting things, but no one really serious about doing anything about it.”
Bowden will continue his testimony Wednesday morning. The defense has yet to cross-examine him.
Updated: 4:30 p.m.
A crime scene investigator testified Tuesday that he collected a 9 mm cartridge outside the Omni Hotel in Charlotte that prosecutors say came from the pistol of Rayquan Borum. It's the second day of testimony in Borum's trial on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Justin Carr during protests uptown in September 2016.
Carr was killed during the second night of protests that erupted in Charlotte in the aftermath of the police shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott.
Crime scene investigator Henry Buhr testified that he collected evidence found outside the Omni Hotel, where Carr was shot. Buhr took numerous photos of the crime scene where Carr had laid on the ground. The pictures included areas of the street, clothing and shoes that had suspected blood on them.
He also described a picture that he took at the scene of a discharged bullet casing to a 9 mm gun. The state says Borum fired a 9 mm gun that night.
In her cross-examination of Buhr, defense attorney Darlene Harris pointing out that it took five to six hours to secure the scene where Carr was shot. Buhr confirmed that during that time, items could have been removed or added to the crime scene.
Richard Jones, one of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police homicide detectives who interviewed Borum after his arrest, continued his testimony earlier Tuesday. Jones said that after he had finished reviewing video footage of the protests that night, he first thought Borum had attempted to shoot at police.
Jones testified that the video showed Borum running in multiple scenes. The detective also identified a muzzle flash in the video, which is a visible blast of light after a firearm is shot.
[Related Content: Opening Statements Made, Witnesses Testified InFirstDay Of Borum Trial]
Jurors also heard testimony from Rasheed Ali, a video documentarian who was outside the hotel when Carr was injured. The video he took that night was submitted into evidence. It does not show who shot Carr but it does pan to the man on the ground, bleeding after he was shot.
A CMPD detective who said he saw Carr after he was shot also testified, as did a member of the CMPD SWAT team who rode in the armored vehicle that took Carr to the hospital.
Witnesses who took the stand Monday included Carr’s mother, a close friend who said he was with Carr when he was shot, and a journalist who says he saw an African American male with dreadlocks shoot Carr that night.
