In his 1982 trial testimony, having first stated that he saw William Cook attack Officer Faulkner by punching him in the face, Scanlan stated:

At that point, the Officer reacted, trying to subdue the gentleman, and during that time, another man came running out of the parking lot across the street towards the officer and the gentleman in front of the police car. I saw his hand come up, like this, and I heard a gunshot when the man got to the policeman and the gentleman he had been talking to. Then the officer fell down on the sidewalk and the man walked over and was standing at his feet and shot him twice, I saw two flashes.

N.T. 6/25/82, 8.6-7

Scanlan described watching the gunman fire into the fallen officer’s face:

ADA McGill: Do you know whether or not any of those shots hit the officer?

Scanlan: Yes, Sir. I could see that one hit the officer in the face. Because his body jerked. His whole body jerked.

N.T. 6/25/82, 8.8

Scanlan specified that the man who fired the fatal shot “was the man who ran from the parking lot,” wearing “a red-and-blue striped coat or sweater” (N.T. 6/25/82, 8.34, 8.40).

That was exactly what Jamal had been wearing when arriving police found him at the crime scene.

Cynthia White

Cynthia White was a prostitute who was standing on the corner of 13th and Locust St. that morning, roughly 30 feet away from the shooting. Ms. White gave her original statement to police at 4:15 AM, just 20 minutes after the shooting. Her report was given at the same time that Robert Chobert was giving his statement, to a different police officer, in a different location.

In her statement Cynthia White reported:

I saw a Police Officer pull over a Volkswagen. One guy was in the Volkswagen. The Police Officer got out of the car and went over to the Volkswagen. When he got to the Volkswagen, the driver of the Volkswagen got out. They both walked towards the Police car. They got to the front of the car. Another guy came running out of the parking lot on Locust St. He had a hand gun in his hand. He fired the gun at the Police Officer about four or five times. The Police Officer fell to the ground. I started screaming. The guy who shot the Police Officer was sitting on the curb. The guy who got out of the Volkswagen was standing there. A Police wagon came from 12th Street over Locust Street. One of the Officers got out of the wagon and went over to the Police Officer. Other Police Officers arrived. I was trying to tell them who shot the Officer, but they wouldn’t listen. The Police handcuffed the man who was sitting on the curb, the man who shot the Officer. Then they took the man who got out of the Volkswagen.

Cynthia White Statement 12/9/81, 4:15 AM

Ms. White described the killer and what he did:

Can you describe the man who fired the gun?

He was a black male, short, in his 20’s, and he also wore his hair in dreadlocks.

– – – – –

How far away from the police Officer was the man, when he fired the gun?

A couple of feet.

How many times did he fire the gun?

Four or five times.

What did the man do after he fired the gun at the Police Officer?

He sat down on the curb.

Cynthia White statement, 12-9-81

Jamal was still sitting on the curb when the police arrived.

Speaking just 20 minutes after the shooting, Ms. White had correctly stated that the shooter fired from about two feet away. Trace metal tests performed months later would verify that the officer was shot in the back from a distance of less than twelve inches.