A Taco Bell manager walking to work just before 5 a.m.

A 71-year-old church pastor out for his daily exercise, as he’s done for decades.

A University of Kansas researcher listening to music while taking his beagle-spaniel mix dog, Phoebe, for her usual pre-dawn walk.

These three men said their early-morning routines were interrupted the morning of June 6, 2016, when — in a span of less than 30 minutes — each was robbed at gunpoint on southwest Lawrence sidewalks, and Phoebe the dog was shot dead.

The three victims testified to their experiences Tuesday in Douglas County District Court during the first day of a jury trial for the man charged in connection with the crimes.

Pierre P. Walker, 20, was charged July 11, 2016, with three counts of aggravated robbery and one count of cruelty to animals, all felonies. According to the charging document, on June 6, 2016, Walker allegedly was armed with a shotgun when he stole property from three people — a backpack, wallet and keys from the Taco Bell manager, a phone from the pastor and an iPod from the man walking his dog.

Three suspects in a small SUV allegedly committed the crime spree, according to victim testimony and previous information from Lawrence police.

However, Walker is the only person who has been charged in connection with the case, prosecutor Eve Kemple said.

Walker is currently being held in the Douglas County Jail, and his trial is scheduled to continue throughout this week.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, Walker wore a polo shirt and dark blue jeans and appeared attentive, taking notes and remaining alongside his attorney, Mike Clarke, at times when Clarke and Kemple approached the bench to consult with the judge.

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The first victim to take the stand, Benjamin Foley, said he was partway into a long walk to his workplace, a Taco Bell on Sixth Street, when, while on Kasold Drive just north of 23rd Street, he heard a screech and the sound of someone running behind him before he turned around to see three men.

While one main aimed a shotgun at him, the other two took his backpack and rifled through his pockets, Foley said. The men ran back to a small SUV and drove off, and Foley went into the nearby Hy-Vee grocery store to call police, he said.

About a mile away, St. Luke AME church pastor Verdell Taylor Jr., then 71 years old, was out for his morning jog and walk around 5 a.m., Taylor said during his testimony.

Taylor was on 27th Street outside the Holcom Park Recreation Center when he saw an SUV pull into the lot, then right alongside him. Three people got out, he said.

“The next thing I knew, a gun was pointed in my face,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he stared down at what appeared to be the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun, and into the eyes of the person holding it.

Instinct kicked in, and he turned to run but fell flat on his face, Taylor said. Facedown, afraid to move, he felt feet on either side of his body as someone rifled through his pockets and took his iPhone. Taylor said he didn’t get up until the person straddling him left and he heard car doors close, then he ran home, woke his wife and called police.

The last victim to speak, Jonathan Schuster, said he was walking Phoebe on 27th Street east of Ridge Court — less than a mile east of where Taylor was — when he heard car doors, then saw two people coming toward him.

Schuster said one person demanded “everything I had” and started rifling through his pockets. He tried to push the man’s hands away. A second man pointed something that looked like a shotgun at the dog, and then Schuster heard a loud noise.

After the men ran off with his iPod and left in either a large car or small SUV, Schuster said he saw Phoebe lying on the ground.

“She had a big wound,” Schuster said. “I saw that she was in a lot of pain; she was whimpering.”

Schuster said he didn’t want to try to move Phoebe very far so he ran home to get his car, but by the time he got back to her she had died.

Veterinarian Jennifer Stone, who examined Phoebe’s body, testified that the dog had a large wound on her left side and too many shotgun pellets embedded in her organs to retrieve them all.

“It’s a massive injury, and it is violent in the way that it was administered,” Stone said. “It looked like it was very close — it was point-blank, pretty much.”

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Lawrence police connected Walker with the robbery spree after an unrelated crime was reported in Kansas City, Kan.

Pierre Walker

Lawrence police detectives testified that the “find” feature on Taylor’s iPhone was activated at two locations in Kansas City, Kan., one of which was where the suspect SUV — which video footage showed had a distinctive yellow front license plate and large dent in the hood — was found.

The SUV’s owner testified that he’d lent it to a friend, who testified (in a previous court statement read aloud Tuesday) that it was stolen from him at gunpoint by Walker and two other men he did not know.

Detectives testified that items linked to the robberies were found in Walker’s Kansas City, Kan., home, including a sawed-off shotgun and a bag containing shotgun shells matching one left by the dog’s body and the Taco Bell manager’s driver’s license and credit card.

None of the three victims who testified Tuesday was able to provide a complete description of any of the men who robbed them.

It was so early it was still mostly dark outside, they said, and the incidents happened quickly and unexpectedly.

Taylor, however, said once he saw Walker’s mugshot in the newspaper along with a story about his arrest, he was certain Walker was the man at the other end of the gun in his face.

“Those are the eyes that I’ll never forget,” Taylor said. “When you are looking down the barrel of a shotgun and the only thing you can see is the eyes of the person…you connect with the eyes.”