Jury watches video on day 2 of Timberview High School shooter trial
TARRANT COUNTY (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Teachers and students can be seen on video that was shown publicly for the first time Tuesday, rushing out of a high school classroom, and running down hallways as a student emerges behind them firing a gun.
A security camera inside Timberview High School in Arlington captured the chaotic scene in October 2021. It was played for a jury during the attempted capital murder trial of the accused shooter, Timothy Simpkins.
The video does not show anything that happened inside the English classroom where the shooting started. However, it does show a student stumbling out of the room, followed closely by Simpkins, and a flash from the muzzle of the .45 caliber handgun he was carrying.
As that student, Zacchaeus Selby stumbles and struggles to crawl away down the hallway, smoke is visible as Simpkins appears to fire at least two more shots toward Selby. Only Selby's motionless foot is visible when the shooting stops, as Simpkins puts the gun in his waist band and walks back toward the classroom.
Prosecutors closed their case with the video Tuesday, after spending much of the second day of the trial calling investigators to the witness stand to tie the gun to Simpkins.
They also brought another student to the stand who was grazed by one of the bullets fired.
Shaniya McNeely was in the classroom when Selby burst in, and immediately started a fight with Simpkins. McNeely said it lasted longer than most school fights, but teachers stopped it, and then she saw Simpkins pull a gun from his waistband.
"When I was running I felt a quick shot. It was really fast. It was just a really fast burn," she said, describing the wound from the bullet that grazed her left side.
Jeremey Walker, a teacher and girl's basketball coach who had headed toward the room that morning to help stop the fight, described the weight of the moment setting in as he sheltered in a locked office with another employee.
"We both sat there and held hands, and cried together, because we really didn't know what was going on," he said. "And I realized, we were supposed to be in basketball, and I couldn't tell my girls."
Selby was never called to the witness stand by prosecutors but did appear in court briefly outside the presence of the jury. Simpkins defense team asked Judge Ryan Hill to reprimand him for posting video clips of the trial to social media, and sending a message to a defense witness.
Hill instructed Selby not to post anything else, and warned him about contacting any witnesses, but did not hold him in contempt of court.
Throughout testimony Tuesday Simpkins' attorneys Lesa Pamplin and Marqueta Clayton continued to cross-examine witnesses about the seriousness of the attack by Selby, with Pamplin suggesting at one point that it was uncertain how the punches and kicks may have affected Simpkins brain.
They declined to give an opening statement when starting their defense case, and appeared ready to call two school employees to testify about Selby's behavior at school. However, with the jury present they only called former student Charley Johnson to the stand.
Johnson was standing in the hallway when Selby came to the classroom, and said he asked her to get video of what was about to happen next, referring to the fight with Simpkins. She testified she stopped capturing video when the fight became too serious, and eventually joined others in running from the room. She appeared reluctant though to say she ran due to the gunshots, testifying she "knew in my heart" Simpkins wasn't aiming in her direction.
Simpkin's defense team plans one additional witness when the trial resumes Wednesday morning.