Applause as judge orders murder trial for ex-cop

The two surviving victims of former Philadelphia Police Officer Rudolph Gary Jr. testified in court yesterday that he brought a real handgun to a frolicking water-gun fight earlier this month and used it to kill his brother-in-law.

"I just started sliding down the car and I couldn't get up. I felt a burning sensation," Indira Johnson said of the moment a bullet from Gary's service weapon tore through her left lower leg, breaking a bone.

She attended the standing-room-only preliminary hearing on crutches and was wearing a leg-and-foot brace.

"I was standing there - I couldn't believe it was happening," testified James Felder, 18, who suffered a graze wound on a leg.

Not so fortunate was Howard Williams, 22, Gary's brother-in-law, whom the off-duty cop is charged with shooting at least three times May 2 on Hoffman Street near 19th, in South Philadelphia.

Municipal Judge Karen Simmons drew applause from Williams' family and friends when she ordered Gary, 26, to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, possession of an instrument of crime and related counts.

Gary, who had less than a year on the police force, was fired a day after the shootings. He is being held without bail.

Williams was the brother of Shanae Williams, Gary's estranged wife and the mother of the son Gary had gone to pick up about 6:30 p.m. that day.

Johnson and Felder took turns telling the court about how the fight began when Gary and his girlfriend, Amber Colon, arrived on the block in his truck and were caught in the middle of a block-wide water fight that included at least 10 adults and 10 children.

In the midst of neighbors squirting each other with colorful "super soaker" water guns, someone whose name the witnesses didn't know splashed Colon.

Colon got out of the truck and began to fight with Williams' niece, prompting Gary and others to attempt to break them up, the witnesses said.

When Gary grabbed the niece, a verbal back-and-forth between the two men ensued and led to Gary going to his truck and retrieving his department-issued weapon, the witnesses said.

Gary first pointed the gun at the crowd and told everyone to get back, the witnesses said.

"Everyone told him to put it down, there are kids out here," Felder said. "He screamed he didn't care."

Gary then shot Williams in the neck and twice in the chest, said Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes.

The two witnesses said that Gary fired at Williams even after he fell on his back.

Defense attorney Fortunato Perri Jr., said his client had been trying to protect his female friend, who was being attacked by the crowd.

"There was a serious confrontation going on out there that day," said Perri, who is also representing Frank Tepper, another ex-cop facing murder charges for allegedly shooting a neighbor in November. "We're confident that this case is not going to rise any higher than voluntary manslaughter under the circumstances."

"Justice was served today," prosecutor Watson-Stokes said. "We have someone who was treated fairly under the system. Ultimately, the fact that he was a police officer had little or nothing to do with the court's decision to hold him on first-degree murder."