Salvador Villa worked as an armed security guard at a Target Store in downtown Los Angeles in late December last year.
The man was found leaving the fig in the seventh shopping center, carrying two suitcases packed with goods. Villa said he and two other store employees tried to stop him.
Testifying Thursday at a court hearing in LA County Superior Court, Villa died when asked if something strange had happened next.
“Yes,” Villa said. “He shot me.”
Suspect Jabril Metoyer faces multiple charges of attempted murder, robbery and attempted robbery. Prosecutors said the Target case was the second shooting in three days in downtown L.A., both of which are less than two miles from the courthouse.
The villa said surveillance cameras at the store caught Mettoyer, then caught 25 people and attempted to steal $1,000 worth of goods on December 30th.
Villa said he walked to Metoyel’s left side and touched her shoulder.
“I told him, ‘That’s not a big deal. You’re going to sign some papers, you’re going home,” Villa said of the first encounter.
Metoyer later told police he believed he was being invited, and the detective had to explain that he could not take the product out of the store without paying.
Prosecutors allege that Villa, who stepped into the courtroom with the help of a cane, was shot five times by Metoyel. He testified that he was unable to continue his work due to injuries.
Authorities say Metoyer shot 34-year-old William Davis. He testified from next to a court reporter as his electric wheelchair was required because the extent of his injury prevented him from using the witness stand.
Davis greeted customers at Target, checked receipts, and sometimes stopped shoplifting at the door. He said he was in the hospital for six months and had little memory of the shooting. He said he suffered from the bullet wound, which had passed through his feet and wounded his chest from extensive attempts to resuscate.
Police detectives are hesitant to say whether Mettier was experiencing a mental health episode or under the influence of drugs, but explained that he was upset in a tape interview and switched from topic to topic for pointlessness. He had never been tested for drugs or alcohol, but he told police he was trying to stay calm.
Los Angeles police sentenced. Miguel Garcia testified that some of Mettoyer’s answers are ramblings, as “separated from reality.”
Metoyer admitted to shooting the guard dead and identified himself in stills on target surveillance footage, police said.
Metoyer’s defense attorney, Molly Zavidow, read from the transcript that the client said was targeting him, saying “there was a supply for the war.”
When investigators ran from the scene after filming and asked where he was going, Mettier said he was going “going home to Jerusalem.”
Three days ago, Metoyer was allegedly involved in another nearby shooting.
Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department testified that Mettier approached a man named Mohamed Hawk at the Chase ATM and asked for a donation to the conflict in Gaza. When Hoque said no, Metoyer left and came back as Hoque pulled out his wallet and used the machine.
det. Jaquelynn Navarro said Metoyer asked. Before pulling the handgun and shooting Hawk in his stomach.
Mettier told police after Hawk made an offensive gesture and reached for a gun in his waistband before he was arrested that he was protecting himself.
He was going to shoot the “entity” – the words he used on Hawk – the second time to kill him, but the gun didn’t work, Mettier told police, according to his lawyer’s records.
“I don’t even think of it as human,” Metoie said when police showed him a photo of Hawk, according to a transcript read in court.
Mettier was arrested on the Great Ve day after hours of standoffs at his apartment in the 1200 block of West Ingraham Street. Police recovered a 9mm handgun that matches the crime scene shell casing, and a purple scarf that the target suspect saw wearing.
Metoyer endured trial and was ordered to stay in jail on $4.1 million bail. His arrest is scheduled for August 21st.
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