Trial begins for shooting suspects beaten by police

Three men accused in a triple shooting who were later shown being beaten by police entered not-guilty pleas yesterday as their trial began on charges of attempted murder.

Dwayne Dyches, 26; Brian Hall, 24; and Pete Hopkins, 20, are charged in a May 5, 2008, shootout in the Feltonville section in which three people were wounded.

Dyches, Hall, and Hopkins were arrested within minutes, after a 21/2-mile chase that ended with police dragging them from a gold Mercury Marquis. As officers battered the three, a Fox 29 camera in a helicopter was watching.

The resulting video resulted in the firing of four officers and the discipline of four more.

The arrest occurred two days after the May 3 slaying of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, at a time when police were looking for a bank robber wanted in the killing.

In opening arguments before Common Pleas Court Judge Ramy I. Djerassi, Assistant District Attorney Carol Sweeney laid equal blame for the shootings on all three defendants.

Sweeney painted a picture of a cold-blooded attack in which 15 rounds were fired on an unsuspecting group of people "just chillin' " at Fourth and Annsbury Streets.

An undercover narcotics officer working nearby witnessed the shooting and called for backup officers working in the area, Sweeney said.

Sweeney said the three men returned to the gold Marquis and sped away, trailed by police cars as it weaved through traffic.

The chase ended when the Marquis was boxed in by police cars. It was on Second Street when the video crew captured the scene.

Sweeney, calling the video "the elephant in the room," said she would not seek to exclude it from the trial.

Defense attorney Mary Maran, representing Hopkins, said the three men had gone to the neighborhood that night to attend a vigil for a friend slain the night before.

She said the three defendants were being held equally responsible for the shooting "because if they're convicted, the police officers' actions are justified."

Maran said the weapon, found 24 days after the shooting, carried none of the defendants' fingerprints or DNA.

Maran said she also would highlight inconsistencies in the undercover officer's initial report: a mention of a fourth man, a possible shooter who got away; the first police alert, saying the assailants had fled in a black truck, and the discovery of a minivan parked near the site of the shooting with a weapon and live rounds inside.

Evan Hughes, attorney for the alleged getaway driver, Hall, said his client had merely driven his two friends to the vigil.

Hughes asked why a "getaway driver would get out of the car," and said the description of his client's behavior was "completely out of character."

Dyches' attorney, Robert Gamberg, said there was no evidence that his client played any role in the shooting.

"What did he do?" Gamberg asked the jury. "If you can't answer that, he's not guilty, because he committed no crime."