'I was just trying to get away,' Elgin gun suspect testifies

Denarrell Mabry wasn't trying to kill anyone when he opened fire on several people chasing him last fall near a crowded youth football game in Elgin, he testified Thursday.

"I was just trying to get away," the 21-year-old Rockford man said. "It opened up a way for me to run."

Mabry took the stand on the second day of his bench trial before Kane County Circuit Judge Allen M. Anderson.

He is charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school and other offenses stemming from the Sept. 8, 2007, shooting, which caused mass panic at the youth sporting event at Huff Elementary School.

Public defender Ronald Haskell sought to prove Mabry had no intent to kill that day when he "wildly fired" a .357-caliber Magnum revolver toward several aggressors his client testified were chasing him south on Hastings Street near the school.

"He did not have any intent whatsoever to murder someone," Haskell said in closing arguments. "He was firing shots in an effort to ward people off."

Mabry said he had been watching his nephew play football at Drake Field when he stepped away to call a friend for a ride. While he was calling from the area of Hastings Street and Illinois Avenue, Mabry said, three vehicles pulled up and two passengers got out.

A confrontation ensued between Mabry and another man, Mabry testified, and the two traded punches. Mabry said he started running away but was chased by several people and a purple truck. He then turned and opened fire, he said.

Prosecutor Greg Sams argued Mabry's story didn't jibe with the evidence. Mabry would have had to fire through the group of people and also the purple truck he said was behind him in order to hit a red Blazer that was sprayed with bullets, he said.

"It doesn't make sense what he has to say," Sams argued. "The physical evidence just does not match up with what the defendant says."

Anderson is scheduled to rule Oct. 29.