Opening statements made in 'Facebook Live' shooting trial

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

Anthony Logan, right, with his attorney Adam Parisi.

SCHENECTADY — Anthony Logan choked his wife, kept her from leaving, repeatedly refused to obey officer commands and moved his arm toward officers as though he had a gun, prosecutor Christina Tremante-Pelham told a Schenectady County jury Tuesday.

Logan’s actions ended with city police officers opening fire on him, striking him twice in a shooting captured by a bystander on Facebook Live. Logan survived, but still uses a walker.

“He made a series of choices that bring him here today,” Tremante-Pelham said.

Those choices should end in the jury convicting Logan of weapons and other charges, she said.

Logan’s attorney, Adam Parisi, countered that the jury should focus on the charges at hand, including the weapons count, and also focus on evidence collection techniques.

The jury should question DNA evidence allegedly connecting Logan to a sawed-off rifle prosecutors say Logan tossed to a neighboring building prior to the shooting, Parisi said.

Parisi also questioned a charge that Logan created a risk to others through his alleged actions that led to the shooting.

“Did he create a risk to other people?” Parisi asked. “He’s on the top floor and police are on the lower floor with all their guns pointed at Mr. Logan.”

Logan, 23, faces a series of charges in connection with the June 5 incident at 535 Mumford St.

The most serious is a felony weapons count. Logan allegedly tossed a bag containing a sawed-off rifle to a neighboring building just after officers arrived to investigate a report of a man who had choked a woman inside the second-floor apartment.

Arriving officers Jonathan Haigh and Douglas Smith got not response from inside the apartment. They eventually spotted the woman hysterical in a window and Logan came out to the second-floor porch.

The woman, Logan’s wife, eventually came out the front, but Logan remained on the second-floor porch and refused to consistently show officers his hands, Tremante-Pelham told the jury.

At times, he pointed his finger at officers and simulated a gun, she said.

“He’s taunting the officers,” she said.

Just before being shot, Logan smoked a cigarette as officers had their guns drawn. He also repeatedly told officers he had a gun, Tremente-Pelham told the jury. At one point, he bent down and his hands were obscured by the porch railing, she said.

“He takes his arm and quickly raises it over the railing with an object in his hands and points down at the officers below him and draws fire from the officers across the street,” Tremante-Pelham said.

Police have previously identified the four officers who fired as Nicholas Giardono, Timothy Rizzo, Douglas Smith and Detective Daniel McDonald. Authorities found the shooting justified.

No gun was found on the balcony or anywhere but in the bag tossed previously to the neighboring building.

Parisi questioned the accusation that Logan’s wife couldn’t leave the apartment, arguing that while Logan was on the porch, she could have fled out the back.

“Is she really being restricted? Or is this just a lot of nonsense and overblown on her account?” Parisi asked.

He also suggested DNA found on the rifle identified as Logan’s could have been transferred from the bag or somewhere else.

In addition to the felony weapons-possession count, Logan faces two misdemeanor menacing counts “by displaying what appeared to be” a weapon toward police officers. He also faces misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment and criminal obstruction of breathing counts related to the incident that prompted the initial police call.

The indictment also includes criminal contempt, witness tampering and criminal solicitation counts, all misdemeanors. Those charges accuse Logan of trying to convince a witness to refuse to testify.