photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Derrick Del Reed is pictured during his murder trial on March 6, 2024.

Story updated at 6:27 p.m. Wednesday, March 6, 2024:

A Douglas County jury viewed police body camera footage on Wednesday of a dying boy after he had been shot in the back and as an officer attempted to render aid.

The video is part of the trial of Derrick Del Reed, 18, of Lawrence, who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Kamarjay Shaw, 14, of Lawrence, on March 18, 2023.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Troy Miller testified that he was a few blocks away from the scene when the shooting was called in and that he was first to arrive. In two videos, one from his dash camera and one from his body camera, he can be seen driving to an apartment complex at the corner of 13th Street and Maple Lane and running inside a second-floor apartment.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Douglas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Troy Miller testifies during the murder trial of Derrick Del Reed on March 6, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

Once inside, the video showed Miller with his hands pressing firmly on a green towel that the resident of the apartment, Demarcus Williams, had applied to Shaw’s back. Miller can be heard saying “Stay with me, Kamarjay” as Shaw struggles for breath. Miller said that he later learned that type of breathing is called agonal breathing. Paramedics arrived shortly after and took over for Miller.

Prior to Miller’s testimony, Williams testified that Shaw and a group of friends were visiting his sisters and had come in and out of the apartment that day, but when they came in screaming, he knew something was seriously wrong.

The state, represented by Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum and Senior Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Leal, played the 911 call while Williams was on the stand.

The audio was chaotic as a girl told the dispatcher her friend was shot and they needed help right away. The operator struggled to get information from the girl as she was screaming “hurry up, hurry up” and “oh my f—ing god.” Other people could be heard in the background screaming also.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Derrick Del Reed is pictured during his murder trial on March 6, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

Williams said Wednesday that Shaw and several other teens came into the house all at once and Shaw said he had been shot. Shaw was holding his side near the front, but when Williams checked for a wound he found it on the back and retrieved a towel and applied pressure until police arrived.

In opening arguments, Leal described the bitter feud between Reed’s and Shaw’s friend groups and said that on the morning of the shooting Reed had sent messages to his friends that said “I see a lot of dead [N-words].” Leal said that Reed was referring to Shaw and his friends.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Senior Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Leal delivers opening arguments in the trial for Derrick Del Reed on March 6, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

He said Shaw and his friends went to Reed’s for a fight, but when that fight didn’t happen they walked away, and that’s when Reed fired two shots, with one hitting Shaw in the back. He said Reed then fled the scene and ditched the getaway car and the murder weapon.

Reed’s attorney, Mark Hartman, in opening remarks said that Reed was not alone that day but was with Owen Walker, 19, of Lawrence. He said that a neighbor told police on the day of the shooting that she saw a light-skinned African American man holding a gun and firing it at the teens. Hartman said her description of the shooter matched Walker.

Hartman said that Reed turned himself in the next day while Walker has been on the run from police for months.

Hartman also said that the autopsy report for Shaw shows the bullet that was recovered from Shaw’s body had a defect as though it hit something other than Shaw, while the coroner said that the only thing hit in Shaw’s body was soft tissue.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Judge Sally Pokorny is pictured during the murder trial of Derrick Del Reed on March 6, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Defense attorney Mark Hartman, center, talks to prosecutor Ricardo Leal, left, and prosecutor Jennifer Tatum, during the murder trial of Derrick Del Reed on March 6, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

The state’s main witness on Wednesday was Kimberlee Nicholson, the Lawrence Police Department’s lead detective during the investigation. Nicholson testified about interviewing teens who were at the scene and witnesses from neighboring houses.

One witness whom Nicholson interviewed was the neighbor Hartman mentioned in his opening remarks.

Nicholson testified that the neighbor, who lived a couple of houses away from Reed, recalled seeing a light-skinned African American man with facial hair come out of Reed’s house with a gun and fire it. Nicholson said the woman told police that this man had visited Reed’s home frequently in the past, but that she did not know his name.

Hartman asked Nicholson if police ever showed the woman a picture of Walker or a lineup of suspects that included him. Nicholson said they hadn’t.

Nicholson said the department does not use lineups unless there is reason to believe the witness is very familiar with the suspect. She also said that eyewitness testimony is often unreliable, and that other parts of the woman’s description didn’t match with Walker.

For instance, Nicholson said, the woman described the shooter as being about 5 feet tall, but when Nicholson interviewed Walker that night, she said he towered over her and was clearly taller than 5 feet.

Hartman noted that police relied on the neighbor’s statement for other things — including her narrative of what happened and a description of the firearm the shooter was holding — but not for a description of the shooter’s appearance. He also said the neighbor did say that the man regularly visited Reed’s house and that she described knowing the man well by sight. Nicholson reiterated that the woman’s description didn’t match Walker closely enough to warrant a lineup.

At one point, Hartman asked Nicholson: “So you refuse to concede, if she identified Walker, that it would hurt your case?”

“If she did that, we would have a very different situation here,” Nicholson replied.

After Hartman ended his questioning, a brief recess was called and court was adjourned an hour early. Judge Sally Pokorny said that the parties did not believe that the next section of testimony would conclude by 5 p.m.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Lawrence Police Detective Kimberlee Nicholson shows the court a Snapchat video taken from a witnesses’ phone of Shaw and his friends approaching Reed’s driveway at a trial for Derrick Del Reed on March 6, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nicholson presented doorbell camera surveillance footage that showed Reed getting into his car with a two-toned object pointed directly at the ground. Nicholson said she couldn’t be sure what the object was.

Nicholson also showed Snapchat videos from one of the four girls who were on the scene of the shooting, all four of whom were later charged with obstruction. The videos showed the girl’s perspective of the shooting from just a few houses south of Reed’s. One video showed Shaw and his group of friends outside of Reed’s house taunting him. The next showed Reed’s Chrysler 300 pulling out of the driveway and speeding off and the girl’s vehicle following.

In other Snapchat evidence, Nicholson said that at around 8:30 a.m. Reed was messaging a friend about his struggles with Shaw and his friends. In those messages shown to the court, Reed used the N-word to describe his adversaries and said that he planned to buy a gun and that he would use it. His friend counseled him to “not go down that road.” Nicholson said police have not been able to contact the man Reed had exchanged those messages with.

Nicholson also testified about the recovery of the gun. She said it was found in the 1100 block of 12th Street the day after the shooting, hidden under a bush with some grass piled on top of it. She found a 9mm pistol with an extended clip that was still loaded with 18 rounds of ammunition. As the Journal-World previously reported, Hartman said at a previous hearing that he told police where to find the gun after Walker texted him the location.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Lawrence Police Detective Kimberlee Nicholson shows the jury at trial where she found a gun under a bush believed to have been used to shoot Kamarjay Shaw on March 18, 2023.

Lawrence Police Detective Kimberlee Nicholson shows the jury at trial the gun believed to have been used to shoot Kamarjay Shaw on March 18, 2023.

The trial is set to resume on Thursday. Reed is currently being held at the Douglas County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

The jury is made up of 15 people, including three alternates. Nine of them are women and six are men.