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Court filing for first time reveals that one of victims in Hamad murder case had a knife
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Assistant prosecutors handling the Nasser Hamad aggravated-murder case revealed in a recent court filing that one of the five people who went to Hamad’s house in a dispute that turned deadly had a knife – and so did Hamad.
Two of the five died from gunfire that police said came from Hamad. The three others were injured by gunfire but survived. Hamad, 48, of state Route 46 in Howland, goes on trial Oct. 11 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on charges of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, which could produce the death penalty if he’s convicted.
The filing, by assistant prosecutors Chris Becker and Mike Burnett, gives new details of the events after a fistfight in the front yard of Hamad’s home between Hamad and John Shively, 17.
Shively and the four others who were with him walked from the front of Hamad’s house after the fistfight and returned to their van near Route 46.
The filing says Hamad went into the house, got a handgun and went back outside. Hamad told police he did this with the intention to “hold [the five] because they needed to pay.”
Hamad “began aggressively shooting as he left his house and approached the van that now was clearly attempting to leave his property and backing up onto state Route 46,” the filing says.
“He admits that he was shooting coming out of his house because ‘they’re calling me names and [things],’” prosecutors said, adding, “‘I wasn’t at the van close when I fired.’”
The filing says that as Hamad “approached the van, one of the passengers in the van held up a knife to defend himself from [Hamad], who was shooting at them,” prosecutors said.
Hamad “never saw a firearm, and no firearms were recovered at the scene” from the five, prosecutors said.
The filing says Hamad didn’t slow down when he saw the knife.
“The other guy already had his knife out, and they was moving and I was really close to the van. I just started firing. I got tired of this [stuff]. They’ve been [messing] with me for a long time, They shouldn’t have came over,” prosecutors quoted Hamad as telling police.
After using all his bullets, Hamad went back into the house, loaded another magazine of bullets, then went back outside.
Hamad told police one of the five came out of the van and said, “Please, I don’t have a gun,” prosecutors said.
An off-duty ambulance worker approached Hamad at that point thinking he had come across a car accident and asked Hamad what happened.
“‘I’ll show you what happened,’ and [Hamad] proceeded to shoot into the van,” prosecutors said. “The defendant also at that point shot one of the victims in the back and killed him as he was trying to get back into the van,” the filing says.
The filing says there were no weapons “presented” during the fight. Hamad told police he also had a knife with him during an unspecified time frame.
Prosecutors and police say the five went to Hamad’s house after months of conflict surrounding Hamad’s girlfriend.
The filing anticipates the testimony being complete in Hamad’s trial and the judge giving the jury instructions for deliberating Hamad’s guilt or innocence.
Prosecutors want the judge to rule that the jury instructions not include anything about “the affirmative defense of self-defense” because prosecutors believe Hamad violated his “duty to retreat or avoid danger.”
Jury instructions on self-defense would be necessary for a jury to consider self-defense as a reason for acquittal, a legal expert explained.
Hamad’s attorneys have not responded to the prosecutors’ filing.