Saturday, October 21, 2017
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Jurors in the Nasser Hamad aggravated-murder case were shown the front yard of Hamad’s house, the interior and about a half dozen other nearby locations Friday morning.
The 11 a.m. tour started at the Dunkin’ Donuts across the street and about a tenth of a mile north of Hamad’s home on state Route 46 just north of the Eastwood Mall complex.
As typical, busy mid-day traffic went by, the dozen jurors and four alternates stood near the edge of Route 46 at Kenyon Drive as Kristina Klecha, bailiff for Judge Ronald Rice, showed the jurors the view of Hamad’s house from there.
She and the jurors moved south along the heavily commercial eastern side of the road and stopped several times – in front Sleepy Hollow Sleep Shop, Krystie’s Dance Academy and an office building just across the street from Hamad’s house.
Numerous Howland police and deputies with the sheriff’s office stopped traffic at one point along Route 46, backing up traffic, as the jurors crossed Route 46 to Hamad’s house.
Afterward, they toured additional locations south of his house before boarding the bus for the trip back to the Trumbull County Courthouse. Their day was over by 1 p.m. They return Monday morning for opening statements and first witnesses.
The various locations where the jurors stopped apparently are locations where witnesses reported seeing the Feb. 25 shootings that killed two young men and wounded three other people.
The number of stops they made and the amount of vehicle traffic Friday drove home the point of how many people apparently witnessed the confrontation between Hamad and five people who went to Hamad’s house that day in a monthslong feud between Hamad and members of his girlfriend’s family.
Hamad was in the back of a deputy’s cruiser that followed the jurors, who traveled in a school bus. Hamad remained in the cruiser as jurors viewed the sites, presumably the first time he’s been near his home since the shootings.
Judge Rice issued an order that required Hamad family members or deputies to remove signs they had placed near the road with slogans such as “Free Nasser.” No signage was visible when jurors arrived.
The jurors also walked to a parking lot behind the sheriff’s office before they boarded the bus to Hamad’s house. There they viewed the Chrysler minivan the five used to get to Hamad’s house.
Among its most notable features are bullet holes in the doors and windshield. Some windows are missing.
Police say the confrontation began that Saturday afternoon with Hamad and John Shively, 17, having a fistfight in front of Hamad’s house. After it was over, Hamad went inside his house, got a gun, walked toward the minivan, which was parked near the road, and started firing at the five.
Police said that when Hamad ran out of bullets, he went back in the house and reloaded, returned to the van and fired again. Authorities believe about 18 shots were fired.
The first 911 call came from a woman who was a passenger in a car driving down Route 46. She told a dispatcher in a calm voice at 4:23 p.m. she was witnessing “a group of kids beating the [deleted] out of someone and like some lady driving or something. They’re all about to take off in this gray van.”
Moments later, she said, “Oh my God, they’re shooting. Oh my God. Oh my God, they’re shooting.” Then she said: “A guy came out of the house and was shooting at the van with the woman in it and a bunch of kids.”
She said after the fight, the kids “ran back to the van and tried to get in the van, and a guy comes out of the house and starts shooting at the van.”
She said that when the shooting started, her companion “drove away because they were shooting.”
She added, “We drove away because we were so close we were scared we were going to get shot.” Before she hung up, she said Hamad was on the ground with police pointing their guns at him.
The woman’s call was one of at least 11 cellphone calls the county 911 center received about the incident in the minutes after it occurred.