"Before I leave here, I'm going to write a note thanking him," Jaquan Campos told detectives when questioned about the shooting of an Atlantic City officer back in 2016.
In their second day of deliberations, jurors in the attempted murder trial that came from that shooting asked to see the videoed statements Campos, now 20, and a teen victim gave to detectives at the Atlantic City police station.
Jerome Damon, identified as the shooter, was killed after Officer Thomas McCabe shot back before turning to his critically injured partner, Josh Vadell.
Martel Chisolm and Demetris Cross are on trial for the armed robbery of Campos and two others Sept. 3, 2016. They also are charged with attempted murder for the shooting that wounded Vadell.
When Campos and the teen testified at trial, each remembered little about what happened that morning. In his second day called to the stand, the teen had trouble even remembering being held up at gunpoint.
But when they spoke to police hours after the shooting, both not only remembered the closing and description of the three men, they were thankful to the officer that they knew was still in danger of dying from his wound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFKqvLRdc0A&feature=youtu.be
"I thank him because he saved my life," the teen told the detective of Vadell.
In audience, McCabe patted his former partner on the shoulder.
"Before I leave here, I'm going to write a note thanking him," Campos says in the video. "He took a bullet for me. That's how I look at it... He was coming to save me."
The victims remembered only the gunman at trial. But in the video, they talk about the two other men with certainty that they were involved in the armed robbery.
The defense has argued that Damon acted alone and that Chisolm and Cross were not involved in the robbery and didn't know Damon had a gun.
The jury went to lunch after viewing both videos before returning to deliberations.
