The U.S. Secret Service agent who was shot in the hip while intervening in a fistfight could have bled to death on the floor of the mall, a surgeon testified Thursday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court.
“A fracture of the hip can be life threatening,” said Maj. Greg Osgood, the orthopedic surgeon who operated on Special Agent Paul Buta?s gunshot wound at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center the night of the incident.
“I wanted to operate on it early to minimize the chance of the fracture displacing. … If the fracture displaces, it … can bleed into soft tissues.”
Using X-rays, Osgood pointed to where critical masses of blood vessels and the femoral artery, the largest artery that supplies blood to the legs, could be severely damaged from a gunshot wound to the hip.
He then pointed to a white spot near the hip ? a bullet that remains in Buta?s leg because it could not be removed without further damage.
Osgood?s testimony wrapped up the prosecutors? case that Javaughn Adams, 18, of Annapolis, was shooting to kill the evening of Nov. 18 when he opened fire in Annapolis Westfield Mall, striking Buta and Adams? high school rival, Tahzay Brown, then 16, whose injuries were also to the leg.
The defense did not provide witnesses to address Adams? injuries from Buta?s shots to his back and chest.
Defense Attorney Frank Gray asked Judge William Mulford II to reduce the charge of attempted murder of Brown from first to second degree, because prosecutors did not prove the shooting was premeditated.
It?s possible to “have an intended target … and have intent to kill, but not the premeditation and deliberation,” required for a first-degree murder charge, Gray said.
But Mulford denied the request after prosecutor William Roessler said Adams hid the gun in a bag and Brown was Adams? rival.
“If he intended to kill him … there is sufficient evidence that he had motive” Roessler said.
The defense called several witnesses, including Buta?s wife, Theresa, who testified that Adams? friend Floyd Simms, then 17, was “being beaten and looked like he was in serious peril.”
Adams? attorneys have argued he was only trying to defend Simms, who was ambushed by high school rivals.
Closing arguments are scheduled today.
