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"I felt responsible for the death of that officer," Detective Ismael Cruz testified. "This nearly destroyed my life, my marriage. I still am having trouble."
Cruz, testifying at the murder retrial of Wilfredo Santiago, now 44, paused and looked downward.
Defense attorney David Rudovsky asked if he needed a moment or if he needed water.
"No," he said, he didn't need a moment. A court crier poured him water.
Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes decided to dismiss the jury for a break. Away from the panel, she suggested to Cruz that jurors could take their lunch recess then if he needed a longer break.
"I want to get it over with," a grayish-haired Cruz replied.
Authorities contend that about 2:30 a.m. May 28, 1985, Santiago rushed up to police car No. 912 and fired two shots into the head of the officer inside, thinking it was Cruz. They allege that he harbored anger against Cruz from a police chase the day before.
It was Trench, however, who was assigned to car 912 that shift. The 43-year-old officer died, slumped in the car, parked on 17th Street near Spring Garden.
Before the break, Cruz testified that at 4:39 p.m. May 27, 1985, which was the Memorial Day holiday, he responded to the area of 17th and Mount Vernon streets after a radio call about a fight.
He didn't see the fight, but saw a large crowd and stayed around. He was then an officer in the 9th District, with headquarters at 20th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
About three hours later, he said, he saw a fight break out around 17th and Wallace streets, and saw Santiago "hitting another man."
Cruz walked over to break up the fight, and heard one man in the crowd yell at Santiago: "I don't care if you have a gun, I'll kick your a--," Cruz testified.
Santiago then walked to a bike and as he turned to pedal away, Cruz testified that he "noticed a bulge in his right side and it appeared to me a snub-nosed revolver."
Cruz said Santiago had gotten away but Officer Noel Maldonado, who came to assist him, saw Santiago about 10 to 15 minutes later. Cruz then chased Santiago, who also ran, but then jumped over a cyclone fence, then a wooden fence, near a house on 18th Street, near Mount Vernon. That house, according to earlier testimony, was where Santiago lived.
Cruz testified that he ran into the foyer of that house, and that a man, earlier identified in court as Santiago's cousin, started yelling at him: "Leave my f---ing brother alone," referring to Santiago.
Meanwhile, a woman, earlier identified in court as Santiago's aunt, "jumps on me."
Cruz said he pushed the woman away, then got into a fight with Santiago's cousin. He eventually arrested the cousin with help from another officer who arrived.
As he was leaving the house, Cruz testified, he heard one or more people threatening him: "912, We're going to get you!"
During cross-examination by Rudovsky, Cruz got emotional when pressed on whether Santiago had a gun that day.
"I didn't see the actual gun, but I am 100 percent sure it was a gun," Cruz testified. "I had [more than two decades] to think. I testified very bad back then [in 1985]. I felt very emotional. I felt responsible for the death of that officer."
Maldonado, who has since retired, testified that later that May 27 night, he saw Santiago on the street and took him to the 9th District for questioning.
Since no gun was found on Santiago and since police knew where he lived, he was released that night, then-Sgt. Charles Bloom testified.
Maldonado testified that upon his release, Santiago said to him: "You all right, but that f---ing Hispanic officer [Cruz], I'm going to see him again." *
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