Boston

Victim Takes Stand in Trial Against Reverend Accused in Shooting

Twenty-year Luis Rodriguez was on the stand in Suffolk Superior Court Friday, talking about the night in March of 2015 when Rev. Shaun Harrison allegedly shot him in the back of the head as they walked the streets in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood.

The incident was captured on surveillance video. Harrison is accused of shooting Rodriguez when he was just 17.

"I get up right away, and my first instinct was to apply pressure to the wound, so I stuck my fingers in the bullet hole," said Rodriguez.

At the time, the now 58-year-old Harrison was working as a dean with troubled students at English High School. But prosecutors claim he recruited Rodriguez to sell drugs for him.

In court, jurors saw cellphone video of a fight in which Rodriguez was involved at English earlier in the day. He says he went to see Harrison that night to talk about what happened, and that's when he says he shot him from behind.

Rodriguez says Harrison took off after the shooting, so he ran into the street and stopped a passing motorist for help.

"I'm asking him, 'Am I going to die? Am I going to die?' He goes, 'Calm down, calm down, you're losing too much blood," Rodriguez testified.

Rodriguez says he spent 12 days in the hospital. He broke his jaw, suffered nerve damage and lost part of his hearing.

Harrison has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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