FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, file photo, Darrell Fuller is escorted out of a police station in Mineola, N.Y. Fuller goes on trial Monday, June 9, 2014, in the killing of a police officer and a second man shot during an alleged carjacking while fleeing the scene of the first shooting. He faces a sentence of life without parole if convicted of the murder charges. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) (The Associated Press)
MINEOLA, N.Y. – A New York prosecutor says an ex-convict feared being caught with a handgun when he shot to death a police officer, and then escaped by killing a second man during a carjacking.
Opening statements began Monday in the first-degree murder case of 34-year-old defendant Darrell Fuller. He is charged in the 2012 shooting deaths of both Nassau County Police Officer Arthur Lopez and Raymond Facey, who was killed during a carjacking moments later.
Authorities say Lopez chased Fuller because he suspected Fuller had been involved in a hit-and-run. The prosecutor says Lopez approached Fuller armed with a Taser and that Lopez got within about 5 feet of Fuller when he opened fire.
Fuller's attorney has asked jurors to be skeptical of the prosecution case.
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