WITNESSES TELL OF ‘PISTOL-WHIPPING’
MAN WAS BEATEN AND STRUCK WITH BUTT OF GUN, JURY TOLD
WITNESSES told a jury they saw a man being “pistolwhipped” in a Kingswood street.
Alex Outlaw and Abi Swift told Bristol Crown Court they were driving on Two Mile Hill Road when the noticed a commotion outside the Chip Inn chip shop.
They both described three men attacking a man who was in a fetal position on the road – with one of the hitting him with what appeared to be the butt of a handgun.
It is claimed Shaquille Thompson was accused of robbery before being shot twice in the buttocks in an attack in broad daylight.
A jury has heard he was blamed for stealing two Rolex watches from jeweller Dominic Stewart, who was selling them on behalf of friends.
The court has been told that, following a pre-arranged meeting, three men attacked Mr Thompson on busy Hill Street at around 2pm.
Mr Thompson was shot in the buttocks twice and stabbed in the thigh, the court was told.
Adelaja Brown, 31, of Chapel Road in Easton, Taurean Thompson, 31, of Kingswood, and Andre Williams, 31, of no fixed address, face a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent as well as affray on December 14 last year.
Taurean Thompson also faces a charge of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Tyree Sutherland, 31, of Chaplin Road in Bristol, faces charges of assisting an offender and possessing a firearm without authority.
Speaking behind a screen in court yesterday, Mr Outlaw said as he drove on the scene he saw three men attacking a man lying in a defensive position in the road.
He told the court: “Two were leaning over and punching and kicking the gentleman on the floor. The third guy was hitting him with something.”
Mr Outlaw said the “something” was small and hand-held.
He told the court: “It looked very much like something I’d seen on TV, which is pistol-whipping. I said to my girlfriend ‘Is that a gun?’
“He was leaning in and reaching for any part of the body he could.”
Mr Outlaw described driving further up the road, before being clipped by an oncoming car.
He said the driver of that car got out and joined the commotion. With that, Mr Outlaw continued up the road and called the police.
Also speaking behind a screen, his partner Abi Swift told the jury: “There was a pile of people right in the gutter.”
Miss Swift told the court: “The man on the floor was curled up on his side in a defensive position.
“The other three were beating him up. Two were punching and kicking. One was hitting him with the butt of a gun, it looked like.”
Another witness told the court he saw the commotion – which was joined by a man from a VW Passat waving a knife at waist height.
Trevin Roberts, also speaking from behind a screen, told the court he heard popping noises and thought it was fireworks or an air weapon.
He described seeing four people emerge from Baxter Close, one with a smoking gun who was “firing blindly” towards them.
Mr Roberts said one of the men fell to the ground and was punched and kicked.
He told the court: “The man with the gun placed the gun on the guy’s thigh or buttock area and fired directly into him. He then turned the gun around and hit him in the head with it.”
The trial continues.