“ Witness For The Prosecution “   by Vernon Wilmer
 
When the shooting stopped, a 10-year-old boy was dead. One moment he was
playing football in the street with his friends, the next minute he was dead.
One moment alive, next moment dead. Laughing and running with the football
one moment, dead the next. He’d never see his 11th birthday. 
 
The moment gun shoots rang out on that sunny afternoon, mothers start screaming
for their kids to come inside, NOW! The 10-year-old boy tried to run too, but they
shot him in the back. He dropped dead. The football flew out of his hands. The ball
kept bouncing in an awkward way,  but the little boy didn’t move another muscle.
He was dead.
 
His mother came running, along with his grandmother and aunts. When she
reached her beloved son, she fell to the ground; she scooped him up, hugging
him to her breast, rocking him, kissing his face, begging him to wake up. Begging
him not to be dead.
 
The terrible shooting was on the 6 o’clock news, and again on the 11 o’clock news.
Everyone talked about it all day and into the wee hours of the night. Other mothers
were thankful that it wasn’t their child, but felt deep sympathy for the mother of the
dead boy. Man, woman or child, we all knew it could happened to any of us, anytime, anywhere. No one was safe. Bullets don’t have no names on ‘em.
 
According to the news, the little boy was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
He was another innocent victim of drug dealers fighting over turf. And as usual,
none of the drug dealers were hit. These monsters get guns, kill anybody, but they
never learn to shot correctly. They simply point and click, not caring who goes down.
 
The mother made the usual appeal on the news, asking anyone to come forward
if they knew who the killers were. A lot of people knew, but were afraid to say anything.
A snitch was considered the worse thing on earth and these heartless creeps had no problem killing them or innocent kids.
 
A week later, the police did arrest a well-known drug dealer for the murder of 2
other people. It was rumored that he was also the one that shot the 10-year-old
boy too.
 
As he sat in jail awaiting trial, the major witness suddenly changed his mind and
refused to testify. The Prosecutor had no choice but to release him if no one
else came forth. 
 
The mother went on tv one last time, begging people to come forward if they knew
who killed her son. She reminded us that anyone could be target, even if you
weren’t involved with drugs. Her son wasn’t; he was just playing foot ball like any
other kid would do. Now he was dead. She told us how her son wanted to grow
up to be a football player. He was an excellent student too and his classmates
really liked him. The killer had taken another one of our finest. Won’t someone
please help her get justice for her son. PLEASE.
 
Another week went by and no one came forward. By then, another killing had
occurred, so I guess people sort of forgot about the 10 year old little boy that
was shot in the back. Or at least we tried to forget.
 
Then a miracle happened; not only did other witnesses come forth about the 2
murders the drug dealer was accused of, but a brave woman told the D.A.  she
saw him kill that little boy. She knew him well. She often bought Crack from
him or his deputies in the past. She had been sober for a while, after a year in prison
for drug possession and 6 months in rehab. This lady was turning her life
around.
 
The day of the murder, that same drug dealer had seen her around the corner
and was pressuring her to start using Crack again. Said he’d give her free Crack
if she agreed to sell it for him. They wanted to use women cause the police wouldn’t
suspect a woman as much. She told him she was on parole and had already made
plans to leave the city, to start a new life.
 
Before he could finish talking to her, some young guys drove by and started
shooting. She ducked under a parked car, while the drug dealers pulled out their
guns and fired back. They chased each other, shooting randomly, missing each
other, but terrorizing everyone else on the street. That particular dealer aimed at
the car the shooters were in and shot the boy by mistake. Then he ran off.
 
When it was safe to do so, she eased out from under the parked car and ran
home. For 3 weeks she hid out, too afraid to say anything, scared that the dealer
knew she saw him and would come after her. It was a relief when she heard he
got arrested for 2 other murders. Then came the news that he would be released
since witnesses refused to testify against him. She knew if he got out, he would kill
her. She knew him very well indeed.
 
On the evening news, the police announced that the drug dealer was being
charged with the murder of the 10-year-old boy. Everyone rejoiced! They said
new evidence had come to light. And he urged the other witnesses to reconsider
testifying against him for the 2 murders he was initially charged with.
 
The paper went as far as to say that the witness was a woman, who saw the whole
thing happen. Between the police announcement, the newspaper and paid informants,
they told the drug dealer all he needed to know. He ordered a hit from his jail cell.
 
While the rest of us were certain this monster would be put away for the rest of his
life, he was certain he’d be released. He was right, we were wrong.
 
Late one night, the brave woman was walking down the street, getting some fresh air,
no longer scared of being hurt. She was doing the right thing. That little boy didn’t
deserve to die, that drug dealer did. Since Maryland didn’t have the death penalty,
him being locked up forever was the next best thing. How many people had he killed
already? 3 that they knew of, probably more that they didn’t know about. Yes, she was
definitely doing the right thing.
 
We’ll never know what really happened that night. What we do know is that, when
the police found her body, she was barely recognizable. They had shot her so
many times that she was shot to pieces. The murderers wanted to make sure
they got their point across. “No Snitching” .
 
No one was ever charged with her murder. Everyone wondered why the D.A. didn't
offer her protection and relocation, but that was never answered either.  All we knew
for sure was that someone had killed the witness for the prosecution.
 
But you know, some things have a way of fixing itself. The drug dealer was released for
lack of evidence. A day later, his body was found riddled with bullet holes too. In fact,
they found him near the same spot where the brave woman was killed a few days earlier.
No one reported hearing gunshots, yet his body was blown to pieces. A silencer maybe?
Who knows? To this day, his killing remains unsolved. No one is working on it and no witnesses came forth. I guess the ‘no snitching’ clause works both ways. 
       Case Closed !