"Then it went crazy," Williams testified. Kreager and the heavyset girl were shouting at each other, using the dreaded B-word. There was a second girl involved in the verbal exchange, Williams said. Then "the heavy-set girl struck [Kreager], and then the other student followed."
Then, Williams testified, nearly all the students on the back of the bus descended on Kreager and Ennis, punching, kicking and eventually forcing the couple off the bus. Students near the front surrounded an elderly white man who had boarded the bus when Ennis and Kreager did, Williams said, and the man pleaded for his help in getting off.
Once he got the elderly man off, Williams said, he saw the heavyset girl repeatedly punching Kreager in the face as she lay on the ground while a boy kicked her in the head.
"Get off the woman!" Williams said he shouted at the students. "You're gonna kill her! Get off her!"
Then Williams made a 911 call to ask for police. "These kids have gone crazy," Williams said on the phone. When asked what he meant by "gone crazy," Williams explained, "You don't beat anybody to try to kill 'em."
The five defense attorneys challenged Williams' account, pointing to discrepancies between the testimony he gave Monday and the account he gave to MTA police the day after the incident. (Williams told MTA police that both Ennis and Kreager had seats; in court he said that Kreager couldn't sit down because the heavyset girl was taking up two seats while she filed her nails.)
Under cross-examination, Thomas asked Williams why he never mentioned seeing anyone hitting or kicking Kreager in his statement to police of Dec. 5. Williams answered that there were portions of his statement to police he couldn't remember. Williams also testified that when he picked up the students from Robert Poole, "they acted normal. Nothing loud. No reason to be alarmed. Nothing to be concerned about. Everybody was into their conversations."
What happened, then, to make them "go crazy"? The prosecution rested its case yesterday. Perhaps defense witnesses can tell us.
greg.kane@baltsun.com
