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Daily Bulletin of Law
Shootout Trial Asks 'Who Fired First?,'
SCHERMERHORN STREET — Attorneys presented opening arguments yesterday in a trial surrounding an evening shootout on a Williamsburg street in June of 2003.
Rey Enriquez, 20, is charged with second-degree murder, assault, and attempted murder, but his attorney, Peter Guadagnino, said Enriquez's was ''a classic, textbook case of self-defense.''
Enriquez, on his girlfriend's front porch, at 112 Walton St., and speaking with her and her sister, noticed a group of four or five men walking down the street toward him, Guadagnino said. The men wore hooded sweatshirts and carried their hands in their pants waistbands, he said.
When they got close, the men pulled out guns and opened fire without provocation, hitting and breaking Enriquez's girlfriend's belt buckle, grazing her hip, and causing her pants nearly to fall down, according to Guadagnino.
All three dove to the porch floor, and Enriquez drew his own gun and began firing back, the defense attorney said. The women made it inside the building, where they could hear bullets hitting the walls outside, he said.
Enriquez was arrested the following morning in his girlfriend's apartment.
Twenty-three-year-old Francisco Fuentes, a volunteer auxiliary police officer, died, shot in the upper left chest and the left side of his back. Another, who had a gun and got off several shots, was hit in the right side of his chest and left hip, according to law enforcement sources. He survived.
''They came to [Enriquez]; he didn't go after them,'' said Guadagnino. ''They came looking for him.''
However, law enforcement sources said Enriquez shot first. And shell casings found at the crime scene suggest he fired at least eight rounds, they said.
The men who approached Enriquez were part of a group that had a running dispute with Enriquez and his friends, sources said, though they were unwilling to describe either group as a ''gang.'' The men wanted to speak with the defendant peacefully about resolving some of their problems, sources said.
They got into an argument and Enriquez took out a gun and started shooting, according to law enforcement officials.
Enriquez's girlfriend testified and was cross-examined before another judge. A recording of her testimony will be played for Justice Gustin L. Reichbach at some point in the bench trial.
Guadagnino said she and members of her family were threatened by the victim's gang, who did not want her to testify on Enriquez's behalf. She has since moved out of the city, he said.
Testimony resumes tomorrow, and Assistant District Attorney Douglas Appel is expected
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