Salvador Villa was working as an armed security guard at a Target store in downtown Los Angeles late last December when he confronted a suspected shoplifter.
The man was spotted leaving the Fig at 7th shopping center carrying two suitcases stuffed with merchandise. Villa said he and two other store employees tried to stop him.
Testifying at an L.A. County Superior Court court hearing Thursday, Villa was deadpan when asked whether anything strange happened next.
“Yeah,” Villa said. “He shot me.”
The suspect, Jabril Metoyer, faces multiple charges of attempted murder, robbery and attempted robbery. The Target incident, prosecutors say, was his second shooting in three days in downtown L.A. — both less than two miles from the courthouse.
Villa said store surveillance cameras caught Metoyer, then 25, trying to steal goods later valued at $1,000 on Dec. 30.
Villa said he walked up to Metoyer’s left side and touched him on the shoulder.
“I told him, ‘It’s not a big deal. You’re gonna sign some papers and you’re gonna go home,’” Villa said of the initial encounter.
Metoyer later told police he believed he was being kidnapped, and a detective had to explain that he couldn’t take products out of a store without paying.
Villa, who walked into the courtroom assisted by a cane, was shot five times by Metoyer, prosecutors allege. He testified that he couldn’t keep his job because of his injuries.
Authorities say Metoyer also shot William Davis, 34, who testified from next to the court reporter because his motorized wheelchair — required because of the extent of his injuries — prevented him from using the witness stand.
Davis greeted customers at Target, checked receipts and sometimes stopped shoplifters at the door. He said he was in the hospital for six months and had very little recollection of the shooting. He suffered bullet wounds that went through his leg and scars down his chest from extensive resuscitation attempts, he said.
Police detectives, while hesitant to say whether Metoyer could have been experiencing a mental health episode or had been under the influence of drugs, described him as agitated during a taped interview, switching nonsensically from topic to topic. He was never tested for drugs or alcohol, but told police he was trying to stay sober.
Los Angeles Police Det. Miguel Garcia testified that some of Metoyer’s answers were “disconnected from reality” and rambling.
Metoyer admitted to shooting at the security guards and identified himself in still photos from Target surveillance footage, police said.
Metoyer’s defense attorney, Molly Zavidow, read from a transcript in which her client said he was at the Target to get “supplies for the war I was in the state of.”
When investigators asked where he was going when he ran from the scene after the shooting, Metoyer said he was “running home to Jerusalem.”
Three days prior, Metoyer was allegedly involved in another shooting in the vicinity.
A Los Angeles Police Department detective testified that Metoyer approached a man named Mohammed Hoque at a Chase ATM, asking him for donations for the conflict in Gaza. When Hoque said no, Metoyer walked away, then returned when Hoque pulled out his wallet to use the machine, demanding money again, according to the detective’s testimony.
Det. Jaquelynn Navarro said Metoyer asked, “Is $110 worth getting shot over?” before pulling a handgun and shooting Hoque in the stomach.
Metoyer told the police after he was arrested that he was defending himself after Hoque had made offensive gestures and reached for a gun in his waistband.
He was going to shoot “the entity” — the word he used for Hoque — a second time to kill him, but the gun didn’t work, Metoyer told police, according to a transcript read by his attorney.
“I wouldn’t even consider that thing a human,” Metoyer said when police showed him a picture of Hoque, according to the transcript read in court.
Metoyer was arrested on New Year’s Eve after an hours-long standoff at his apartment building in the 1200 block of West Ingraham Street. Police recovered a 9-millimeter handgun that matched shell casings from the crime scenes, as well as a purple scarf that the Target suspect was seen wearing.
Metoyer was ordered to stand trial and remain in jail on $4.1-million bail. His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 21.