By Jim Balloch Knoxville News-Sentinel Trying to explain to a Knox County jury why he shot Knoxville Police Department Officer Andrew Olson last year, Cameron Cook on Tuesday answered, "I just wasn't thinking."
But Olson was thinking.
"I thought I was going to die," said Olson, 28.
A 1-ounce slug from Cook's 12-gauge shotgun had torn into Olson's leg and knocked him to the ground by his police cruiser. Olson then drew his service pistol, but Cook was fleeing into the residential neighborhood around Washington Pike and Alice Bell Road, where Olson had stopped him in a stolen Volkswagen Jetta.
"I took aim, but didn't shoot," he said.
"Did you have a chance to draw your pistol before he shot you?" prosecutor TaKisha Fitzgerald asked him.
"No, ma'am," Olson said. A Knox County Criminal Court jury today will deliberating if Cook is guilty of attempted first-degree murder or a number of lesser charges. Cook and his lawyer both admit that he fired two shots, and tried to fire a third.
Last month, a jury convicted Cook of several charges, but deadlocked on attempted first-degree murder. Cook, 18 at the time of the shooting, has just turned 20.
"I was not trying to kill him, no way, I wasn't trying to harm him," Cook testified Tuesday. "I apologize for him being shot."
He said he had earlier consumed marijuana, ecstasy and other drugs, and his judgment was impaired. According to earlier testimony, Cook stopped the car after a chase, pulled on a hooded sweatshirt, got out and fired twice. The first shot, small pellets used in bird hunting, struck the road by Olson's cruiser. As Olson opened his door and began to run to the rear of his cruiser for better cover, the second shot struck him. Cook pulled the trigger a third time, but the gun was empty.
Cook said he never aimed the gun directly at Olson, either when the officer was still in the car or getting out. He said the second shot happened at about the same time Olson opened his car door.
"If the door would never have opened, I don't believe he would've got shot," Cook said.
Fitzgerald asked Cook if he was suggesting Olson was at fault for getting shot. "It wasn't really anybody's fault," Cook said.
In closing arguments, Cook's lawyer Phil Lomonaco said that Cook "did some dumb things, stupid things," but was not trying to kill Olson. He said physical evidence supports Cook's contention that he was shooting away from the officer.
Copyright 2012 Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
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