'Tank' Johnson recalls night friend was killed
MURDER TRIAL | 'Tank' Johnson recalls night friend was killed at Ice Bar
He was Terry "Tank" Johnson's best friend, and they'd known each other since grade school, the former Chicago Bears defensive lineman told a Cook County judge Tuesday.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2006, inside a River North nightclub, Johnson leaned close to Willie B. Posey to talk to his buddy one last time.
"I said, 'Po, are you hit?' He said, 'Yes,' and I said, 'Where are you hit?' " Johnson recalled on the witness stand. "He was trying to talk, but . . . he couldn't get the words out."
Johnson's riveting testimony came on the second day of the murder trial for Michael Selvie, accused of shooting Posey after a fist fight inside the Ice Bar on North Clark.
Johnson testified that all he could do was keep praying as he rode in silence in a limousine to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he'd later learn his friend had died.
Earlier that night, Johnson testified, he, Posey and a female friend, Mia Waites, had gone to the Ice Bar together after dinner at Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse. As Johnson and Waites danced, Selvie kept bumping into Johnson, prosecutors say.
"It just happened over and over again," Johnson testified.
At the time, Johnson was on probation for a misdemeanor handgun possession charge and worried that further trouble might destroy his football career, and so he turned to talk to Selvie.
"I said, 'Hey, I'm Tank Johnson from the Bears,' " Johnson recalled Tuesday. "I'm in a lot of trouble. I don't need any more trouble."
And even though the two men shook hands, Johnson said the dance floor bumping continued. That's when Posey came over, and a few moments later, the fight started.
Johnson testified he tried to stay clear of the scuffle. Johnson said he thought Posey was "dumb" for getting involved.
Just moments later, Johnson testified, he heard a gunshot, although he never saw a gun. As patrons were scrambling to find a way out of the club, Johnson found his friend lying on the floor. The bullet pierced Posey's left shoulder and lodged in his spine.
As Johnson answered prosecutors' questions about Posey, he referred to his friend in the present tense -- as though he were still alive.
But defense attorneys accused Johnson of caring more about his career than helping police investigate his friend's death.
Attorney Rick Beuke asked Johnson why he initially told police he wasn't inside the Ice Bar the night Posey was shot.
"You made a decision to lie to police because you hoped it would benefit Tank Johnson?!" Beuke bellowed at the witness.
"You could say that," Johnson replied. "I was scared."
But Johnson told prosecutors, "I told a lie, and I feel terrible about it."
The trial continues today.