Drivers who witnessed the lead up to the Joe McKnight shooting say that McKnight and accused murderer Ronald Gasser were driving erratically and both appeared to be “engaged in road rage.”
A report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on the fourth day of Gasser’s trial details testimony from several witnesses who say the pair were engaged in a confrontation for an extended period leading up to McKnight’s death. The defence has said that McKnight pursued a frightened Gasser after an initial incident blocks from the shooting.
But several witnesses disputed that on Tuesday, including motorist Jerrod Jones. From the Times-Picayune:
“It appeared to me that they were racing,” Jones told jurors, referring to when he first saw the two vehicles. “If one got ahead of the other, they’d catch up. ”
However, Jones said when he saw Gasser’s car speed after McKnight, nearly running into a concrete barricade near the General De Gaulle exit, he said he purposely kept his distance from the vehicles, thinking “it’s going to end up bad.”
Two other motorists gave various versions of the mutual pursuits and the weaving in and out of traffic at high rates of speed on Tuesday.
Another witness, Veronica Hoye, pulled up beside Gasser’s driver’s side window just moments before the shooting and heard the two men arguing.
Hoye testified that Gasser’s head was turned towards McKnight’s vehicle, and that she could not hear what Gasser was saying. However, she testified that at one point she heard McKnight say, “No, you get out of the car.’
“I’m like ‘Lord, please, don’t nobody get out of the car!'” Hoye testified.
Hoye said shortly afterwards McKnight got out of his vehicle and leaned into Gasser’s passenger side window.
Mcknight, 28, was shot by Gasser on Dec. 1, 2016. Gasser never left the shooting scene and was initially freed after more than eight hours of questioning, a controversial move that led to racially-charged protests. Arrested on a manslaughter charge four days after the shooting, Gasser was indicted by a grand jury on the second-degree murder charge in February.
McKnight played three seasons for the New York Jets and one with the Kansas City Chiefs. He spent a season in the CFL, playing two games for the Edmonton Eskimos and three for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The trial continues Wednesday.
– with files from the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Associated Press
