5.James Floyd — Direct
136 linesJAMES FLOYD, duly sworn
COURT CLERK: Please state your name, spell your last name for the record, keep your voice up and speak into the mic.
JAMES FLOYD: My name is James Floyd, F-L-O-Y D.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MS. PELLEGRINI:
MS. PELLEGRINI: Good afternoon, Mr. Floyd.
JAMES FLOYD: Hi.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Where were you born?
JAMES FLOYD: I was born in Florence, South Carolina.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And at some point did you move to Massachusetts?
JAMES FLOYD: About five years ago.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And in April of 2013, where were you living?
JAMES FLOYD: I was living at 56 Laurel Street in Watertown.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And who was living there with you?
JAMES FLOYD: My wife and my three-week-old son.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And on the night of April the 18th going into the early-morning hours of April 19th, what do you recall happening?
JAMES FLOYD: I was sleeping on the couch. My son was downstairs, as was our routine. Sometime after midnight or so I heard, you know, some loud banging outside. I hopped up, peeked out the window, saw some gunfire, which was -- and then went and scooped up my son and took him up to the second floor, to the back of the house. When I got to the top of the stairs, my wife stopped and, you know, she was frantically asking what was going on. I told her I didn't know. I went and set the baby down and went out to our bedroom window, which was on the second floor, and started looked out the window at what was going on.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Mr. Floyd, let's go back a little bit. The house at 56 Laurel, single-family, two-family?
JAMES FLOYD: It's a single-family.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And the front yard, what's that like?
JAMES FLOYD: It kind of has more of a side yard. And we have a vinyl fence mostly around -- you know, that completely encloses the side of the yard. There's a pear tree in the yard, which is in the back, and then a big plum tree at the front of the yard, you know, the corner of the yard.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And how would you describe the neighborhood in which you live?
JAMES FLOYD: It's a mixed neighborhood, very quiet neighborhood. Mixture of older, young people, mixture of single families and renters. It's pretty diverse.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And with respect to the closest -- or the side of the yard, how would you describe the houses on Laurel Street?
JAMES FLOYD: I think we have a pretty decent-size yard for the area. You know, I have a whole yard, which is one of the reasons we moved there. I want to say we're a fifth of an acre, is the size of our plot. You know, a nice size for this area, I think.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. So I'd like to show you what's in evidence already as Exhibit 772.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Mr. Bruemmer, if you would bring that up, please.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And do you see this diagram in front of you, Mr. Floyd?
JAMES FLOYD: Yes.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And I'm going to enlarge this part right about here. Can you point out -- your screen is a touch screen in front of you. If you touch it with the pad of your finger, you can make a circle, you can have an arrow. Can you point out to the jury where you were living in April of 2013?
JAMES FLOYD: Right here (indicating).
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. So you've made a little yellow mark on the second house in. I actually think it is marked as 56 Laurel Street. And what I'm going to point to right here, is that the tree you were talking about, or one of them?
JAMES FLOYD: Yes; that's the plum tree.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And so this part looks out onto Laurel Street. Is that correct?
JAMES FLOYD: Yes.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. Now, so when you said that you were downstairs and you said that had been part of your routine, whose routine when you're sleeping downstairs?
JAMES FLOYD: Our family routine. We had a three-week-old. We tried to get through the nights as best we could with as much sleep as possible. So she would feed the baby, go upstairs, try to get as much sleep as she could. I'd give the baby a bottle whenever it woke up and then go upstairs, and hopefully one of us got a decent night's sleep.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And the living room area in which you said you were resting on the couch -- is that right?
JAMES FLOYD: Yes.
MS. PELLEGRINI: -- is that front -- the front part of your house, does that come up to the front?
JAMES FLOYD: The actual room extends from the front to the back. Front to the back. The couch was probably right -- sort of in the middle of the room.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And the noises that you heard that woke you up, how would you describe those?
JAMES FLOYD: Well, at first I thought it could have just been some fireworks going off. It was -- you know, it woke me up out of a sleep, so I didn't really have any bearings about me at first. And so I looked outside and I could see -- you know, I could see, you know, guns firing. I could mostly -- at that point I could see people to my right, which would have been to the west and sort of underneath where the tree is. But I didn't look for long. I saw that it was, you know, pretty serious, and I wanted to get my kid back to the back of the house upstairs in his crib.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And so once you looked out and you saw what you saw, you took the baby and went upstairs?
JAMES FLOYD: Right. Put the baby in the crib in the back of the house. And then my wife and I went and couldn't help but look out of the second-floor window in our bedroom.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. Now, from the second floor, is there any obstruction of your view by the -- it's a plum tree, right?
JAMES FLOYD: It's a plum tree. At the time it was pretty -- it was blooming pretty good and so I couldn't really see a lot of -- so, yes, there was some obstruction to the view as I looked down and to the right. Once I was downstairs, I could kind of see -- I didn't have to look through the tree. But once I was on the second floor, it was kind of hard to see through the trees at exactly what was going on down there.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. So when you first looked out, and you said -- well, tell me what you saw.
JAMES FLOYD: When I was downstairs and I looked out, I saw guns firing and people screaming. And this was to my right. And then I basically stopped and got the kid and I ran upstairs. So I didn't see much at that time. Then when we got upstairs, we looked for a more extended period.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. But when you were downstairs, could you tell if anybody was in uniform at that time that you saw outside?
JAMES FLOYD: The only thing I could say for sure is I saw blue lights.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Blue lights?
JAMES FLOYD: So there was that assumption, that someone was in uniform. But which one, who was firing, no, I couldn't see any of that.
MS. PELLEGRINI: When you got upstairs and you were able to look out the second-floor window, what did you see?
JAMES FLOYD: So out of the second-floor window, I could see a lot better and it -- to my left and -- which I guess would be facing east, so --
MS. PELLEGRINI: If you can mark that on the map which is still in front of you, 772?
JAMES FLOYD: So somewhere around this area --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Okay.
JAMES FLOYD: -- I could see there was two cars, both facing this direction, I guess which would have been east. I could see two cars and I could see two individuals firing back to the west.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Can you --
JAMES FLOYD: Firing.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Can you tell what kind of car was involved here?
JAMES FLOYD: I saw there was a sedan, and it was easy for me to see one of them was a black Mercedes SUV just because of the pretty -- it has a pretty distinctive shape to it.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And where were these two individuals in regard to the location of the Mercedes?
JAMES FLOYD: Between them. Between them taking cover. They would pop up and out from time to time, and then go back. Seemingly, they had things with them and they kept going back to the ground to grab things.
MS. PELLEGRINI: What do you mean?
JAMES FLOYD: It seemed like maybe they had a bag of things that they were going to to either -- I don't know whether it was ammunition. I know at several points I saw a fuse being lit and, you know, what I then found out were bombs being thrown. When actually they threw them, you know, you could hear -- sort of throwing them like a baseball, you'd hear the clink, clink, clink and then an explosion. I definitely saw four of those things happen, but only two I remember actually exploding.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And with respect to the two individuals, was there any way that you could differentiate between the two?
JAMES FLOYD: No.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Were both individuals doing the same type of thing or was one doing one? What happened?
JAMES FLOYD: Well, while they were taking cover between the vehicles, it was really tough to see what was going on. It was just kind of a barrage of gunfire in both directions. And also, you know, they would pop up from time to time and, you know, come out. And, you know, I saw them throw the bombs. Sort of -- that kind of went on for an extended period of time. And at some point one of them came out from that cover and started moving forward, which would be west. And once he kind of came out from the car, he kind of seemed to get into some sort of really close-range gunfight. I didn't see who he was doing that with, but he was obviously shooting -- exchanging fire with someone. And I'm not sure, you know, the exact, you know, sequence of things, but at some point the --
MR. WATKINS: I'm going to object, your Honor.
THE COURT: New question?
MR. WATKINS: Yes.
THE COURT: Let's have a new question.
BY MS. PELLEGRINI:
MS. PELLEGRINI: What's the next thing you saw after you saw the person start down the street?
JAMES FLOYD: The next thing I saw was -- I looked back and I could see the individual that was still behind the car pull out something larger. It seemed to me that it was in a bookbag. It seemed to be -- light a fuse. And where the other -- and then he kind of took the bookbag like this, and it seemed like it was heavy just by the way he was throwing it. And he seemed to throw it out this way. Actually --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Let me just stop you right there, Mr. Floyd. So for the record, you're indicating with your arm outstretched and starting down low?
JAMES FLOYD: Yes. He was standing up or -- from what I could remember, and he grabbed the bookbag by the -- you know, one of the bookbag straps and seemed to launch it as far as he could, which wasn't, you know, very far, from what I could tell. The bomb did not make it very far -- or the thing did not make it very far before it blew up.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And when it blew up, what happened?
JAMES FLOYD: It was far and away much bigger explosions than the other ones, than the other smaller explosions that happened, and it was a very, very bright light. Blinding light. We ducked down. A couple of pictures came off of our wall. And we looked back out and the scene was very smokey. And at that point we saw the person that was still by the cars get into his car and make a -- somewhat of a three-point turn and turn his car, the Mercedes, heading east, and floored it. I mean, just really floored it.
MS. PELLEGRINI: What could you hear?
JAMES FLOYD: Well, just heard the engine roar loudly and then it seemed like he was heading straight toward where everyone was gathered, including the other person who had been tackled to the ground at that point. My wife made a shriek because it looked to her and us that he was going straight for, you know, the whole crowd of police officers there. And we heard a -- you know, it was kind of like a thud and we saw the headlights -- the taillights, excuse me -- raise up off the ground. He had obviously -- obviously hit something and run over it. Then lots of gunfire. But he somehow made it -- the vehicle somehow made it down through Dexter and up the street.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Mr. Floyd, let's go back just a little bit. You said that when you first looked back and you heard gunfire. Could you see the exchange of gunfire?
JAMES FLOYD: Yes.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. I'm talking now about the two individuals who were by the Mercedes. What, if anything, could you see either one doing?
JAMES FLOYD: Just, I mean, other than firing, not much. There was just a lot of activity, you know, so there wasn't constant firing. There would be firing followed by a brief delay where it seemed like they would be digging back into whatever they had at their feet.
MR. WATKINS: Objection to "seems like."
THE COURT: I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.
MR. WATKINS: I'm saying -- could we have another question?
THE COURT: I think he's still answering the same question. Go ahead.
JAMES FLOYD: So I just saw, you know, these two individuals were firing and launching -- well, when I was downstairs I didn't see any of the things thrown, only saw the gunfire at that point. And I was not --
BY MS. PELLEGRINI:
MS. PELLEGRINI: Let me stop you there. When you said you only saw gunfire, with respect to the Mercedes, where did you see the gunfire?
JAMES FLOYD: It was coming from behind the Mercedes.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Could you tell who was firing the -- any weapon from behind the Mercedes?
JAMES FLOYD: I couldn't distinguish one from the other at that point, no.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And then when the individual came out from behind the Mercedes, let me -- so this person walked down Laurel Street?
JAMES FLOYD: Right. Walked down Laurel Street to about -- you know, I would say about right here (indicating). You know, somewhere in this area. And stood there for a while and exchanged gunfire with something that I could not see.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. So you could not see whether or not there were police officers in this location at that time from your --
JAMES FLOYD: I couldn't tell.
MS. PELLEGRINI: You could not tell?
JAMES FLOYD: I couldn't tell. Right.
MS. PELLEGRINI: And the other individual remained where, if you saw?
JAMES FLOYD: Behind the Mercedes.
MS. PELLEGRINI: By the way, how could you differentiate between the gunfire and -- when you talked about being -- fuses being lit?
JAMES FLOYD: Well, you know, I've shot guns in my life. I've been around guns, so I know what that's like. And then, you know, I've seen fuses being lit at least on, you know, fireworks. It's very distinguished -- it's a very easy thing to see what a fuse going looks like: It's slow and has sparks flying off it versus a gunfire, which is, you know, muzzle blast.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Now, when you indicated that the Mercedes was heading in the direction of people who were down the street, were you able to see at that point who was down the street?
JAMES FLOYD: No. What I saw was the suspect who wasn't -- or the individual that wasn't by the car. He started to just seemingly just walk in this direction, just oddly, just not firing, just walking, almost maybe walking fast, straight towards where, you know, kind of all the police activity was down here. Well, that doesn't --
MS. PELLEGRINI: That's okay. So you've made an arrow a little past your house and a line?
JAMES FLOYD: I probably should change that. That's --
MS. PELLEGRINI: I can do that. Go ahead.
JAMES FLOYD: So there was -- most of the police cars seemed to be around here.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right.
JAMES FLOYD: And then someone started walking from -- he started walking from this way, that way. And at that point I did see a shadow come out from behind this yard, through the gate, tackle him to the ground.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. When you say "come out from behind this yard," you made no indication on the map. Can you tell us where you're speaking --
JAMES FLOYD: This yard right here.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Okay. So a shadow comes out, intercepts a person walking down the street?
JAMES FLOYD: Tackles him to the ground. I saw other figures jump on top and looked back and saw someone, the other guy, get in the car and do some sort of three-point turn and --
MS. PELLEGRINI: Can I stop you there, Mr. Floyd? What do you mean by a three-point turn?
JAMES FLOYD: Well, the car was pointing east. So he had to turn the car around in the middle of the road to make it back so it was going west. So I don't remember if he pulled forward first and then backward first, but basically he did that kind of turn that you have to do in the middle of a street when you're going to turn around.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And what's the next thing that you remember?
JAMES FLOYD: He just went very, very fast, seemingly as fast as he could go, straight to where it seemed like the people had been tackled to the ground. So there was also police vehicles in the street or other vehicles in the street, so that also happened to be the same area where, you know, he had gotten tackled.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And once the vehicle made contact with the -- well, did you know who the vehicle made contact with, from your vantage point?
JAMES FLOYD: No, we didn't know. Our assumption was it made contact with everyone and that it was bad. We didn't think there was any way anyone could have gotten up and moved.
MS. PELLEGRINI: All right. And tell me, what did you see the vehicle do specifically?
JAMES FLOYD: It -- well, you could distinctly see the headlights raise up like it had hit something and bounced over it, and you could hear a thud, like a ka-koo (indicating), and then just lots and lots of gunfire.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Now, Mr. Floyd, as you sit here today, is it your memory that, in fact, the person you saw do the underhand movement and throw the container that made the big blast was the same person who drove the Mercedes back down the street toward the police officer?
JAMES FLOYD: Absolutely without question.
MS. PELLEGRINI: I'm sorry. Say it again.
JAMES FLOYD: Without question it was the same person.
MS. PELLEGRINI: Thank you. I have no further questions.
MR. WATKINS: No questions.
THE COURT: No questions? All right, Mr. Floyd. Thank you. You may step down.
(The witness is excused.)
MR. MELLIN: The United States calls Andrew Kitzenberg.