Demaree Ritchie testified on Friday that he was at a friend’s house on Sept. 9, hanging out and drinking beer, when he went to investigate a noise he heard and encountered the grandfather of his children.

He said the grandfather, Alvin L. Leggett, said, “I finally caught you,” before pulling out a gun and shooting him in both legs. As he and Leggett then fought over the gun, Ritchie said another man who was with Leggett, Kevin P. Person, grabbed a shovel and started beating him with it.

Prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of Ritchie, 32, Friday morning during the preliminary hearings for Leggett, 54, and Person, 52, who Erie police charged with attempted homicide and other offenses in the attack. Erie 2nd Ward District Judge Ed Wilson held the pair for court on all charges following the hearing.

Leggett and Person were initially charged in the crime shortly after the incident, which happened in the 600 block of East 13th Street, but prosecutors withdrew the charges when Ritchie failed to appear in court for their scheduled preliminary hearings in October and December. Police refiled the charges against the pair in January.

Ritchie testified Friday that he was treated after the attack for a gunshot wound to his right thigh and a grazing wound to his left thigh, and he received staples in his head and suffered a mild concussion from being beaten with the shovel.

Ritchie denied under questioning by Leggett’s lawyer, Raasheja Page, that there was a disturbance between himself and Leggett’s daughter before the incident, and he said he had no idea why Leggett said he finally caught him before the gunshots were fired.

An Erie police detective who also testified during the hearing said under cross-examination that he knew of an outstanding protection-from-abuse violation against Ritchie involving Leggett’s daughter.

A gun was recovered when Leggett was taken into police custody, the detective testified. Ballistics testing on the gun and a shell casing recovered at the shooting scene is ongoing, he said.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie pair charged in September shooting, shovel attack held for court