By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Opening statements and witness testimony are set to begin Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of shooting a Phoenix police officer eight times, including once in the head.
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Jury selection wrapped up Monday, with the trial scheduled to start nearly five years after the shooting.
On Dec. 14, 2021, nine months into the job, Officer Tyler Moldovan and his partner, Officer Zach Johnson, responded to a call about cars doing donuts. Prosecutors say Moldovan was shot eight times during that response.
“I turned around, I didn’t see my partner,” Johnson said. “I sprinted back to where I last saw my partner in the direction of the gunshots, and that’s where I see him on top of my partner.”
Moldovan spent months in the hospital and underwent rehabilitation following the shooting.
“When they told me he was shot in the head, I was like, I had no words,” his wife, Chelsea, said in a 2022 interview.
Moldovan, who was given little chance to live after the shooting, had to undergo daily therapy.
“I have therapy every day. I have physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy,” he said in the interview alongside his wife.
Essa Williams, the man accused of pulling the trigger, is set to face Moldovan and Johnson in court.
Williams was also planning to shoot Johnson before Johnson tackled him and took him into custody, according to detectives.
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“When (the suspect) saw you approaching, he actually had Tyler’s gun in the holster and was lifting him off the ground multiple times trying to pull it out of the holster. Our belief is that he was attempting to pull that gun so that he could shoot you, or at least attempt to,” a detective told Johnson a few days after the shooting.
Williams was a parolee with nine prior felony convictions at the time of the shooting and was legally banned from having a gun. According to court records, Williams’s mother and girlfriend later pleaded guilty to providing him guns, though none of those weapons were used in the shooting.
What to expect at trial
The trial is expected to last several weeks. Prosecutors plan to call Officer Moldovan, other responding officers, detectives, and forensic experts.
The defense will have a chance to challenge that evidence as testimony continues.
Though their lives have been forever changed and the road to recovery has been challenging, the Moldovans have been grateful.
“Lots of things that never were supposed to happen did happen, so we’re very, very grateful,” Chelsea Moldovan said.
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