Feb. 20—GOSHEN — Two potential witnesses of the shooting of Deontae Harris testified on the second day of Sherman Whitener Jr.’s jury trial.

Whitener, 24, of Elkhart, is charged with the shooting and killing of Harris, 28, of Elkhart, in the 600 block of Cleveland Avenue in Elkhart on July 8, 2021.

Tyren Allen, 35, was reportedly there, and he’s being charged with assisting a criminal, implicated in the murder. Allen was arrested for a misdemeanor theft about a week ago, and Elkhart County Circuit Court Judge Michael Christofeno agreed to get him a public defender so he could speak on the incident, a situation that Allen claimed to not have much memory of.

“Ya’ll are still not understanding that I just buried my cousin days before this happened,” Allen told the attorneys during the trial. His cousin, Victor Kyle Jr., 26, who was also Harris’ fiancée Victora’s twin, was killed during a mass shooting at Heritage Square in Granger on June 20, 2021. His funeral was five days prior to the shooting in Elkhart.

Allen said he didn’t recall if he’d been drinking, but he knew that he was “very high” on the day of the July 8 shooting, “self-medicating” after the death of his closest cousin.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the shooting in Elkhart happened shortly before 9 p.m. July 8. Elkhart City Police were called to the area for the sounds of gunfire, where they found Harris lying in the street. Harris was transported to Elkhart General Hospital but died from the injuries.

Surveillance footage from a nearby home shows a man on the street later getting into a black Chevrolet Impala and leaving the area.

According to police, Allen was the driver of that Chevrolet Impala reported at the scene. Allen said he was parked near Ullery Park on Cleveland Avenue in Elkhart, with his daughters, and one of their moms, Ronesha Andrews, waiting on a son, who was supposed to be walking to meet him at his grandmother’s house nearby. He’d pulled over after looping the block, when a man appeared in the alley nearby.

“When I pulled over, I was crying from watching the video from my cousin’s funeral,” he explained.

From there, Allen claimed to not remember much.

Allen confirmed in court to Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker that a dark SUV passed by him and Whitener, whom he claimed to be little more than a stranger, approached him.

“I grew up right there, so I didn’t feel threatened or nothing,” Allen explained. “I just parked the car. I wasn’t thinking about it.”

But Becker claimed that evidence showed that when Allen pulled over, he called Whitener’s phone, as Whitener was coming out of the alley. Allen told the jury that he had that number listed as a different name in his phone and then Whitener came up to talk to him, unrelatedly. Then Harris called Allen, and he called him back seconds later. Moments later, the SUV passed by, with Harris inside.

Victora Kyle, 29, of Elkhart, Harris’ fiancée, said she’d gone to Walmart that evening with her mom to get snacks for a game she and Harris intended to watch that evening, and when she Facetimed him around 8:20 p.m., he was still at home at their apartment on the north side of Elkhart playing a video game.

Less than half an hour later, as she and her mother were leaving Walmart, her sister called and said Harris had been shot.

Kyle said that Harris knew Whitener casually by a street name, but she’d only heard the name mentioned once about two weeks before the shooting, regarding a shoe purchase, and that they didn’t appear to be friends.

“That was the first I’d heard them talk,” Kyle clarified when asked. “No problems, just not friends.”

She didn’t learn Whitener’s real name until he became a suspect.

Allen claimed that he was mostly looking at his phone while Whitener approached and spoke with him, watching videos from her cousin’s funeral. Becker asked him what happened next, and Allen said he didn’t recall.

This is the moment when Allen would have presumably witnessed the shooting. Allen and investigators said the dark SUV passed by him, and Harris got out of the vehicle. Allen got out of the vehicle shortly after.

“There was so much going on I really don’t know,” Allen said when asked again what happened, claiming that Harris then became “aggressive,” asserting that Harris said was getting out of the car before the vehicle had completely stopped.

Andrews, the passenger in Allen’s vehicle, said she wasn’t clear what happened either, and didn’t see Whitener or Harris appear, because she was scrolling on her phone.

“I looked up once I heard shots,” Andrews said, adding that she’d intended to get out of the vehicle but Allen got back in, and then back out again, and then Andrews said she took the car and moved it to Harris’ grandmother’s house nearby, circling the block first. Andrews said she didn’t know who had been shot until after the fact.

“Once we got out of the car and everybody started coming around, I see (the body) and then I heard,” Andrews said.

But Becker claimed that Andrews described the man who’d spoken to Allen and gave police a description of him. Andrews claimed she didn’t know who had shot Harris, but she knew it wasn’t Allen because of a video she saw.

“When I was getting in the car, (Allen) was still standing from what I remember, but I really can’t remember,” Andrews said, adding that the next thing she remembered was trying to leave. Allen ran to his grandmother’s house.

Allen asserted that police said he took Harris’ phone and keys, among other things, and he didn’t deny it but added, “I was just trying to help him.”

“The police said I picked up a gun,” Allen said. “I don’t know if it was keys or what, I don’t remember. … They told me that so many times that I said, ‘OK, that’s what I did.’ There was so much going on at one time, I had tears in my eyes, and I don’t recall.”

When he reemerged from his grandmother’s home after they had fled the scene, Allen said he tried to provide comfort to Harris while EMTs showed up and cared for him before he was taken by emergency personnel.

During cross-examination, Allen told Defense Attorney Denise Turner that Harris was like a cousin to him.

Later on, at the police station, Allen claimed he wasn’t asked what he picked up, but told that he picked up keys, a phone, and a gun, off Allen’s body.

“It’s like they basically said ‘This is what you picked up,'” Allen said.

“I wasn’t thinking about that, I was thinking about getting his stuff out of the street,” Allen said, claiming if there was a gun, although he’d originally denied it, that he threw it into the air along with the rest of his possessions before running into his grandma’s house.

“I was back and forth trying to keep my grandma from having a heart attack about it,” he said.

During the investigation of the area, Allen had helped police search for the gun.

Later on, Becker told the jury, Allen contacted Whitener to tell him that Harris was dead, saying, “Don’t worry, man, I got you.”

The trial continues on Wednesday.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.