A man on trial for attempted murder abruptly pleaded guilty Tuesday after a shooting victim described how he ran for his life, felt a bullet rip into his body and then felt himself go into shock.
The victim was celebrating a friend’s birthday when he was shot during an attempted robbery in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, early on June 15, 2022.
“Out of nowhere, my child — she’s 14 now, but she was 12 at the time — she came and, you know, in my mind, she said, ‘No, this is not it. Dad, I need you,’” the victim testified.
Minutes later, Demonte Hewitt pleaded guilty to attempted murder and related charges. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy called it a “very rare” development.
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The D.C. man is the third defendant to plead guilty to the crime that outraged the community.
Chilling security camera video shows the men pursuing the victim into an alley after he walked a female friend safely to her car after a party at a bar. The driver of the getaway vehicle, a black Mercedes SUV, followed them into the alley.
The victim testified about fighting going into shock from the bullet’s impact. In his mind, he heard his daughter telling him to run.
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“I ran and I seen a police car and I seen, you know, the lights flashing,” he testified. “… that’s when I, you know, went to get help and I’m banging on her window. I probably startled her.”
“But for the miraculous intervention of the police officer, who put a tourniquet on his leg, he would have bled out there on the street,” McCarthy said.
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At the time of the shooting, Hewitt was on probation for his role in a 2018 murder in the District, McCarthy said. Two groups of teens were fighting after school in Northeast when 16-year-old Tyshon Perry, a straight-A student at KIPP DC College Preparatory School, was stabbed to death. His father told News4 his son worked hard to stay out of trouble and dreamed of becoming the first Black director of the FBI.
