Eyewitness IDs Bridgeport man in Norwalk fatal shooting

STAMFORD — The man who identified Bridgeport resident Hakeem Atkinson as the shooter in the 2012 homicide of a 20-year-old Norwalk man took the stand to testify as the trial proceeded in state Superior Court in Stamford.

Cameron Wood, now 25, testified before a courtroom full of Atkinson’s friends and family that he and his friends had been hanging out and smoking weed on the pathway behind the Avalon Norwalk apartment buildings, now known as The Confluence at Norwalk, on Feb. 3, 2012, in the hours leading up to the fatal shooting.

Wood, whose testimony was heard Wednesday, corroborated testimony made a day earlier by 28-year-old Hoover Gallo, who said the group of friends had just finished smoking when 20-year-old Joseph “Jabs” Bateman of Norwalk, a stranger, offered to sell them marijuana.

The encounter, which Wood described as being friendly in nature, ended with someone taking down Bateman’s number and the group of friends going one way — toward Cross Street — while Bateman headed the opposite direction.

Unlike Gallo, however, Wood told Senior Assistant State’s Attorney David Applegate that he recalled an individual who passed by his group, heading in the same direction as Bateman.

Wood said the man was wearing a red hoodie, which was different from prior witness testimony claiming the man had been wearing a black hoodie, and that he “looked like he was having a rough day.”

Wood said he saw the hooded man reach into his rear waistband as he approached Bateman. Moments later, Wood said he heard three gunshots and saw the hooded man flee toward Cross Street before disappearing.

Five days after the shooting, Wood identified Atkinson, 26, out of a photo lineup as the man he believed to have been the shooter that day.

“At the time, I said 80, 85 percent,” certain the shooter was Atkinson, Wood testified.

During cross examination, defense attorney John Gulash, who represents Atkinson, asked Wood how he arrived at 80 to 85 percent certainty in his identification.

“I don’t have an explanation,” Wood said.

Gulash then questioned Wood’s capacity to accurately recall the moments before, during and after the shooting, given that he had also admitted to smoking marijuana prior to the incident.

“Not to put you on the spot, but you did say you were smoking marijuana that day, right? And it did have some effect on you, back then, right?” asked Gulash.

“Yes,” answered Wood. Wood later defended selecting Atkinson out of the photo lineup, saying that the defendant was the person he saw on the day of the shooting “to the best of my knowledge.”

After more than an hour of testifying, Wood was dismissed from the witness stand.

The murder trial is expected to continue Friday with testimony from a detective who helped investigate the 2012 homicide.

According to his arrest affidavit, Atkinson, now 26, was 16 years old when Bateman was shot to death in what police said they believed was a retaliation killing during ongoing violence among rival gangs.

If convicted of murder, Atkinson faces a minimum of 25 years in prison, plus an extra five years for a firearms sentence enhancement, which the state is seeking in the case.