Defense attorney claims Carmichaels gas station shooting was in self-defense after assault
A Greene County jury will have to decide whether Christopher McKenzie started an “all-out gunfight” in a Carmichaels gas station parking lot or if he was the victim of an assault by a group of teens and then fired his weapon in self defense.
Opening statements by District Attorney David Russo and defense attorney Noah Geary at the onset of McKenzie’s attempted homicide trial Tuesday morning offered different reasons for what led to the shootout at the Circle K gas station last year that injured three of the teens who exchanged gunfire after an attempt to sell an iPhone soured.
Russo argued that the tranquility and safety of Carmichaels was shattered March 3, 2022, when gunfire erupted between McKenzie, who was 16 at the time, and another 16-year-old youth who returned fire.
“Things changed on that day at 3:40 (in the afternoon),” Russo told the jury. “There was an attack on our culture, something we’ve never seen before in our community.”
He alluded to the incident at as “all-out gunfight” in a crowded gas station parking lot within a stone’s throw of Carmichaels Area School District’s campus in which as many as 15 total shots were fired by both sides. Russo said after the cellphone exchange resulted in an argument at a car parked at one of the gas pumps, McKenzie leaped into the car and took the iPhone and the vehicle’s keys before running toward the store. A group of four teens chased him to the store’s front door where a “scuffle” ensued, Russo said, prompting McKenzie to get up and fire his illegally possessed weapon nine times at the other teens.
“I’m going to turn it into a gunfight,” Russo said of McKenzie’s mindset at the time. “I’m going to turn it into a gunfight right now.”
Stray bullets struck multiple parked cars, the convenience store’s exterior ice cooler and a nearby building, although no one else was injured.
“Luckily – and I don’t know how – no one else was shot,” Russo said.
But Geary argued during his opening statements that his client was acting in self defense after the group of Fayette County teens tried to rob McKenzie of the $300 he brought to purchase the cellphone when they reneged on the deal. Geary said when McKenzie retreated to the store after grabbing the phone and car keys, the other teens chased him down and brutally assaulted him by breaking his left arm and kicking him in the head while he was on the ground.
“A lot of things happened that day that the prosecutor didn’t mention, which is critical,” Geary said.
Geary showed the jury a photograph of McKenzie’s torso in which one of the teens in the vehicle shot him a dozen times with a pellet gun while he reached in the car to retrieve his money when the deal soured.
“Who initiated the violence at the Circle K?” Geary asked rhetorically. “Chris didn’t shoot himself with the pellet gun. It was one of them.”
After the beating by the convenience store, Geary said his client pulled out his gun and fired because he feared for his safety.
“They beat the crap out of him. … What has he done to deserve this?” Geary said. “Our position in this case is self defense. … He’s in pain. He’s in fear.”
The other 16-year-old, Vincent Pratt, pulled out a gun and shot back, striking McKenzie in the left eye, which he no longer has. Geary asked the jury to consider why the charges against Pratt, who turns 18 next month, were moved to juvenile court and he was offered community service. The case against Marquis Noah Curry-Jones, who is now 18, was also moved to juvenile court, while the two other teens, Kobe Lee Cramer, 19, of Dunbar Township, and Joshua Allen Curry-Jones, 20, of Uniontown, are awaiting trial. It was unknown if they have been offered plea deals in exchange for their expected testimony during the trial this week.
Marquis Curry-Jones was shot in the leg and Joshua Curry-Jones was shot in the arm during the exchange of gunfire.
Geary acknowledged that McKenzie shouldn’t have possessed the firearm due to his age, and he told the jury that they will likely find him guilty of that felony gun possession charge. But he pointed to the assault in which McKenzie saw Pratt holding a firearm as proof that his client was the victim of the beating and only fired in self-defense.
“What is going on with the different treatment?” Geary said. “They brought the violence to Carmichaels that day.”
He indicated that McKenzie will likely testify during the trial to explain his side of the story.
McKenzie, of Carmichaels, who turns 18 next month, is being tried as an adult on multiple felony charges, including four counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault, along with numerous other felony and misdemeanor charges. The trial is expected to last five days with more than three dozen witnesses on the schedule to testify.