I have a deadly conduct case where defendant fired a weapon into a crowd spread out over a city block. An officer observed the Defendant fire the shots and observed several individuals in the crowd. The indictment alleges that Defendant fired at or in the direction of three named individuals. Those individuals did not cooperate with police and did not give statements. However, the officer himself observed those individuals in the crowd.

Do we need to call the victims or can we prove it through the officer's testimony?

Don't you love those victims that refuse to cooperate?!

I have found that uncooperative witnesses become helpful when you tell them that they have no choice once they recive the subpoena and that you will make it clear that they didn't volunteer to help.Is this a gang related case?

It is not a gang related shooting.

I will definitely subpoena the victims and require them to testify. More likely than not, one or two of them will testify that yes, they were there when the shots were fired, but as far as they know, the shots were not fired in their direction. The testimony of the officer will refute that.

The good thing is that you can actually see the defendant firing the shots on in-car video. Wonderful! Of course, you can't see the crowd that he was firing into.