D.C. gun owner testifies an assailant fired first in car-theft confrontation that left teen dead

An unknown thief fired the first shot, D.C. resident Jason Lewis testified Wednesday as he took the stand in the murder trial of 13-year-old Karon Blake.

Mr. Lewis, 42, testified that he heard one of the fleeing car thieves yell "Do it" before seeing a getaway driver aim a pistol and shoot early on Jan. 7, 2023.

The defendant said he responded by shooting back with his own legally owned handgun — a gunshot that took out a window of the Kia Sportage the burglars used to drive to the 1000 block of Quincy Street Northeast.

Prosecutors said Karon tried to flee amid the commotion but wound up sprinting right at Mr. Lewis.

The defendant said he shot the boy twice because he was charging at him. Karon died in a hospital a short time later.

"I was in fear for my life," Mr. Lewis explained from the witness stand as to why he shot the running teen.

Mr. Lewis' self-defense claim was already encumbered by D.C.'s tight gun laws, which bar legal gun owners from using deadly force to defend property.

Police said Mr. Lewis opened fire on the group of thieves, which included Karon, while they were breaking into his car.

Prosecutors' frame-by-frame breakdown of nearby surveillance cameras during cross-examination invited skepticism into the defendant's claim he was fired on first.

Mr. Lewis stated it was at one interval in the recordings, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Wojcik pointed out that the defendant's view of the getaway car was still obscured by an outer brick wall.

Another juncture in the recording was singled out by Mr. Lewis, but prosecutors said the getaway car began to retreat almost immediately when the defendant stepped out of his front gate and onto the sidewalk.

Mr. Wojcik also said the microphones on the defendant's own home surveillance cameras couldn't pick up the thief's alleged gunshot; they could, however, pick up Mr. Lewis sighing to himself as walked back to his home to call 911.

Prosecutors also pressed Mr. Lewis as to why he never told police that he was shot at, or that he shot at the getaway car. The defendant said "I was in shock."

Mr. Lewis, who worked nearly two decades for D.C.'s Department of Parks and Recreation and set up programs for troubled youths, was heard performing CPR on the boy while talking with a 911 operator.

Minutes after the incident, prosecutors played a piece of footage where Mr. Lewis can be heard talking on the phone with his mother.
He is heard telling her "I probably just murdered a child."