Shooting victims testify against alleged gunman
Two people allegedly shot by Maceo Saunders in separate incidents in Washington earlier this year testified at his preliminary hearing Monday afternoon about how he fired at them indiscriminately while young children were nearby.
Daniel Becker was shot in the chest and elbow in the March 10 shooting that left him with half of his liver and nerve damage in his right arm, while Treonna Washington suffered a broken femur May 20 when she was shot in the leg while in a vehicle.
Becker testified he was outside a house in the 200 block of Ridge Avenue when Saunders approached him and started yelling.
“He was animated, mumbling a lot. I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” Becker testified. “I figured I could talk to him and calm him down. It didn’t work.”
Instead, Becker placed his hand on Saunders’ chest in an effort to create some space between them and asked the man to identify himself, although he testified that he knew it was Saunders, who answered that he was Maceo. Saunders then pulled a handgun from his backpack and fired three times, striking Becker twice, according to testimony. Becker said a woman and four or five young children were right behind him, and he was worried they may have been injured.
He made it into the house and never lost consciousness before he was rushed to the hospital for treatment. Becker testified he still has lingering health problems after losing half of his liver, and he was wearing a wire brace on his right hand while on the stand.
Meanwhile, Washington was 17 when she was shot in the leg while riding in a vehicle with her father, Trey Willis, and her younger brother, she testified. Washington, who is now an adult, said they came to an intersection at Ridge and Shannon avenues when she saw a gun pulled from the driver’s side window of a passing car.
“The shots were fired as we went by him,” Washington said of the five or six gunshots she recalled hearing. “I saw (the gun) sticking out the window.”
Neither Willis nor Washington’s younger brother were injured. But Washington’s femur was shattered and she required surgery to place a rod in her right leg to stabilize the bone.
She recognized Saunders from social media and various times he was with Willis, and was able to identify him after speaking with city police.
After hearing their testimony, District Judge Larry Hopkins ordered Saunders to stand trial on all charges related to the two shootings, which included two counts each of attempted homicide and prohibited possession of a firearm, along with three counts of aggravated assault and multiple charges of reckless endangerment. A motive for either shooting was not released during Monday’s hearing.
Saunders, 26, of 1651 Weirich Ave., Canton Township, was on the run for months before city police received a tip that he was at a rental home at 365 Taylor Ave. in Washington. A SWAT team arrested him without incident Sept. 15, and also found a lunch box with several bags of suspected cocaine in the basement, prompting police to file a felony drug charge against Saunders. However, Hopkins dismissed that charge during the preliminary hearing because laboratory tests on the substance have not been returned and there was no testimony offered to show Saunders ever possessed the lunch box.
Monday’s hearing nearly didn’t happen after defense attorney Lee Rothman asked that Saunders be permitted to sit in the courtroom in Washington County Central Court rather than view the proceedings through video conferencing from the Washington County jail. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, emergency orders have been in place that allow for jailed defendants to appear through video conferencing, except for jury trials or plea and sentencing hearings when they’re brought into the courtroom.
“My client wants to be present in the courtroom, and I don’t think there’s anything preventing that,” Rothman said before threatening to walk out of the preliminary hearing upon it starting.
Hopkins, who did not want to reschedule the hearing again after it had already been delayed multiple times, eventually granted the request and Saunders was brought from the jail by sheriff’s deputies and attended wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. His formal arraignment on charges related to the two shootings has not been set, and he remains jailed without bond while awaiting trial.