Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Katie Barnes speaks for first time since Landen shooting
LEBANON – She didn't know she was shot.
Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Katie Barnes had sought cover after an explosive bang and whizzing of bullets she says she'll never forget. She fell over.
When she got up, she returned fire and fell down a hill. She knelt behind a tree.
Her gun jammed.
It was dark, but when she looked down to reload she could see something glistening on her wrist. That's when she noticed her torn shirt was also warm and wet.
She was bleeding.
"I just prayed," Barnes testified on Tuesday.
This was the first time Barnes has spoken publicly since the shooting, which sparked a six-hour manhunt in Deerfield Township, Ohio, on June 9, 2016.
Mohammed Laghaoui was arrested and charged with nine felonies related to the mayhem, including attempted aggravated murder. Laghaoui also is accused of shooting his father in the hand.
Tuesday was the first day of testimony in his trial.
After the jury visited the Orchard of Landen apartment complex, where the shooting occurred, Laghaoui's lawyer told them his client is mentally ill.
The defense attorney said Laghaoui changed his name to Frank last year – prior to the June incident – after starting a job at Home Depot. He shaved his eyebrows and began speaking in different voices, said Nadeem Quraishi, his attorney.
Laghaoui went to the hospital twice because he thought he had a snake in his throat. His family eventually traveled back to their home country of Morocco to visit his childhood doctor. While there, Quraishi said, he swept imaginary bugs off a roof.
Back in America, Laghoui began to think someone was trying to harm him.
"He was not trying to kill anyone," Quraishi said of the June 9 incident.
The altercation started, Barnes said, when she was called to Laghaoui's apartment earlier that day. Mohammed Laghaoui's father, Abdessadek Laghaoui, was upset at his son for eating his hummus.
Barnes asked Mohammed Laghaoui about it.
"Yeah. I ate the hummus, and it was very good," Barnes recalled him saying.
But she testified he didn't appear impaired or mentally unstable. She said he just didn't want to talk to her.
Abdessadek Laghaoui feared his son would be jailed. He interrupted Barnes during questioning, she testified, to tell her he loved his son.
The deputy left after Mohammed Laghaoui, then 19, agreed to go to his room and watch television the rest of the night.
Barnes was called back about 45 minutes later. The situation had escalated, and Mohammed Laghaoui had punched his father, according to a 911 call.
As Barnes approached the apartment, she could only muster the words "hey" before the shooting started. Assistant Warren County prosecutor John Arnold said Laghaoui came within a "fraction of an inch from literally shooting her guts out."
After she was released from the hospital, the Mason High School graduate couldn't sleep because of injuries to her spine and rotator cuff. She has since returned to desk duty at the sheriff's office, but not road patrol.
Before her testimony, Barnes stood in the Warren County court's hallway looking out the window. She was facing away from the courtroom she was about to enter. Her mom placed a hand on her shoulder.
The prosecutor gave Deputy Barnes several opportunities to take a break during her testimony. She refused them, fighting through tears as she recounted thoughts of dying.
After jumping over a fence about nine months ago and collapsing to the ground, another deputy threw Barnes into the back of his cruiser and drove to a UDF for medical help.
While on the way to the hospital, Barnes asked herself: "Am I going to die?"
Then, she asked medics to call her mom because she didn't want her to see the news on TV. As Barnes described this scene on Tuesday, her father put his arm around her mom and squeezed her shoulder.
When Barnes stepped down from the witness stand, she wiped away tears from her face.
The trial in Warren County Common Pleas Court is scheduled to continue all week.