By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Opening statements are underway in the trial of a man accused of shooting a Phoenix police officer eight times, including shots to his head.
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Jury selection wrapped up Monday, with the trial starting nearly five years after the shooting. The trial is expected to last several weeks.
Prosecutors called Officer Tyler Moldovan, other responding officers, detectives and forensic experts to the stand. Officer Moldovan walked to the stand and testified before jurors, describing what he remembers from the night of the shooting and the injuries he sustained.
The shooting
On Dec. 14, 2021, nine months into the job, rookie Officer Moldovan and his partner, Officer Zach Johnson, responded to a call about cars doing donuts near 19th Avenue and Camelback Road. 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 said his shift began at 8:30 p.m. when he responded to the call. His earliest memory after the incident, he said, was from March 2022, when he was at Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado.
“My brother came to visit me in Denver,” Moldovan said.
He described multiple gunshot wounds, including two to his head — one to the right side behind the ear and one to the left side behind the ear — as well as injuries to his shoulder, thumb, wrist, hip and legs. He said the head wounds caused brain stem injuries.
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 previous 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.
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Although 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.
Competing versions of events
In opening statements, prosecutors said the evidence shows defendant Essa Williams shot Moldovan in an effort to get away. The defense told jurors the incident began as a traffic call involving cars doing donuts until officers escalated the situation and that Williams acted in self-defense.
Prosecutors said Williams was also planning to shoot Officer Johnson before Johnson tackled him and took him into custody, according to detectives.
“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.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Dave Erlichman questioned Moldovan on whether the two had ever spoken before trial. Moldovan confirmed he had exercised his right as a victim under the Arizona Constitution not to be interviewed by the defense.
Mistrial requests denied
The defense made repeated requests for a mistrial, arguing prosecutors used inflammatory language and at one point alleging “blatant racism.” Those requests were denied.
Williams was a parolee with nine prior felony convictions at the time of the shooting and was legally banned from having a gun.
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