Bricktown shooting victims testify in preliminary hearing

Alize Thompson and Chalcydonia Crutcher, both 14, said Avery Myers, 16, told them and five other girls to back up before lifting up his shirt, pulling a gun from his waistband and firing into the group from close range.

Myers is accused of opening fire into a crowd after a May 21 playoff game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers. He is charged in Oklahoma County District court with eight counts of shooting with intent to kill.

Myers and his attorneys claim he acted in self-defense because he felt threatened by a crowd of people after previously getting into fights with two groups of men.

Thompson and Crutcher testified the group of girls sought out Myers and two others because they had jumped Thompson's cousin and taken her phone earlier in the evening.

Thompson said Myers grew “fidgety,” telling the girls to “back up” before pulling up his shirt.

“He pulled out his gun and shot,” she said.

Myers, she testified, was standing less than a foot away when he started firing.

Thompson said no one in her group was armed. Two of them, her aunt and a cousin, simply wanted the phone back and didn't threaten Myers.

Both girls identified Myers as the shooter, although Crutcher, a Douglass High School student who was shot in the hand, said she didn't know the shooter's identity until she saw Myers' picture in media reports.

The cousin, Deawana Jones, took the stand Friday but got up and walked off before completing her testimony.

“I don't want to do this,” she said.

Hearing held in juvenile court

Associate District Judge Richard W. Kirby ordered Jones to testify when the preliminary hearing for Myers resumes Aug. 23.

The hearing is being held in Oklahoma County juvenile court to determine whether Myers will head to trial and, if so, whether he will be sentenced as an adult, juvenile or youthful offender if convicted.