The haunting, minutes-long recording played Tuesday during a West Hazleton murder trial gave the victim a voice.
Tuesday also marked the first day the prosecution called witnesses to the stand to testify in the homicide trial of Isiah and Izel Garrett.
Several people in the audience quietly wept as they heard Abdul Hakeem Shabazz's voice in a 911 recording, played from a laptop computer in the courtroom.
Heavy labored breathing can be heard as the dispatcher asks the caller about the emergency.
Shabazz said, "I'm shot."
It was 12:04 p.m. on Dec. 6. The sound of a dog barking in the residential neighborhood can be heard in the background throughout the recording as Shabazz struggles to get help.
When asked for his location, Shabazz said, "I don't know where I'm at." Then Shabazz said he was near a Pantry Quik on Diamond Avenue, near Boundary Street in an alley in Hazleton. The call taker continued to ask Shabazz for better directions but he struggled to breathe.
Shabazz told the dispatcher that he was shot in the stomach and then gave his name.
Shabazz also didn't know who shot him and couldonly tell the dispatcher that it happened in a home.
"I can't breathe," Shabazz said.
Toward the end of the recording, the dispatcher called Shabazz's name several times but received no response. Then Shabazz finally answered, but the call disconnected.
West Hazleton Patrolman Richard Naprava, who was the first witness called to testify in the trial for the prosecution, said he was dispatched to 206-210 N. Third St. for a gunshot victim and found Shabazz.
Shabazz, lying on the ground in a walkway between two homes, was holding a red asthma inhaler and kept saying that he was having trouble breathing, Naprava said. Naprava said ambulance workers arrived at the scene moments later. Shabazz was taken to Hazleton General Hospital and then to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a day after the shooting.
Luzerne County Coroner John Corcoran testified that the fatal shot was sustained in Shabazz's abdomen. Shabazz, he said, also sustained a graze-type wound to his arm.
Cpl. Thomas McAndrew of the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Investigation Assessment Unit talked about how police used phone records to help find the Garrett brothers. McAndrew said phone records show calls from the cellphone of Garretts' father, Calvin, to Shabazz's cellphone the day before the shooting. Police also used Isiah Garrett's phone records to determine his location prior to and after the shooting. He said that information places the brothers in the West Hazleton/Hazleton area during the time police believe the shooting occurred, in the Harrisburg area later that day and then back in Hazleton. Eventually, police found the phone was in the Mechanicsburg area near the Garrett brothers' mother's house, where police executed a search warrant days after the shooting.
Cpl. Jody Radziewicz testified Izel and Isiah Garrett were found in separate bedrooms and the Taurus revolver and ammunition police believe was used in the shooting was found in Isiah's jacket in a closet. A Colt .38 Special, Radziewicz said, was found in Izel's room loaded with six live rounds of ammunition.
Melvonia Gentry, Calvin's girlfriend, also testified that she and Calvin were not at the apartment when the shooting occurred.
The trial will resume this morning at 9:15.
Copyright 2011 - Standard-Speaker, Hazleton, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
