Arapahoe County – A shooting survivor from a melee at an Aurora park two years ago remembers chasing after a man who had just shot his brother to death.
But that’s about all Elvin Bell, 31, could recall of the July 4, 2004, shooting death of his 20-year-old brother, Gregory Vann. Bell testified Thursday in the second day of a preliminary hearing for Sir Mario Owens, 22, whom authorities have charged with first-degree murder in Vann’s death.
Bell said he watched his brother fall to the ground in Aurora’s Lowry Park after being hit by at least two shots and immediately began chasing the shooter across the crowded parking lot to a waiting sport utility vehicle.
“Why were you chasing a man with a gun?” asked Chief Deputy District Attorney John Hower.
“I’m not for sure why,” Bell said. “I think I blacked out.”
Bell said he grabbed the man as they got to the truck.
“I started attacking him, punching him, I guess,” Bell said.
That’s when he saw a flash and heard the sounds of gunfire.
“I didn’t know I’d been shot until I fell,” he said.
Bell was bleeding from a half- dozen gunshot wounds as someone stood over him. His wife told Bell later that the man he chased was kicking him as he was on the ground.
He hasn’t been able to positively identify the shooter or the driver of the SUV, offering only sketchy details such as the shooter’s height and skin tone.
Owens – with a shaved head and small glasses – sat at the defense table in a jail jumpsuit, listening to Bell’s testimony.
Owens is also charged with attempted murder in Bell’s shooting and in the nonfatal attack on Javad Marshall-Fields, who also chased after Vann’s killer that night and was shot two times in the wrist and thigh.
Marshall-Fields identified the SUV’s driver as Robert Keith Ray, 20, which made Marshall-Fields the key witness against Ray. Authorities say it also made him a marked man.
Marshall-Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, were shot and killed June 20, 2005 – a week before Ray’s trial was to start.
That shooting resulted in a massive investigation by Aurora police and the 18th Judicial District attorney’s office, resulting in the indictment of Owens, Ray and 24-year-old Parish Carter in the homicides of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe.
And, prosecutors say, the investigation into the 2005 shooting revealed new details and witnesses to the 2004 shooting. At first, Ray was charged with being an accessory to that shooting. Now he’s charged with first-degree murder and is scheduled to stand trial in October.
Owens wasn’t a suspect in the 2004 shooting until after the 2005 double homicide. Owens’ preliminary hearing continues Monday.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
