‘They’re shooting at me.’ Guard describes gunfire at Lexington restaurant where 15-year-old hit

A restaurant security officer testified Wednesday about the chaotic scene he witnessed in the 2016 exchange of gunfire that took the life of Trinity Gay.

John Ramos, a security officer for Waffle House on South Broadway, said he was looking at his phone shortly before 4 a.m. Oct. 16, 2016, when he heard a shot, looked up and saw a black man wearing a white T-shirt. The man was holding a gun up in the air and standing near Cook Out restaurant on South Broadway.

Then Ramos saw gunfire from two other individuals, one from Cook Out and another from a man shooting toward Cook Out from a line of trees and mulch between Cook Out and Waffle House.

Ramos told that man, who was crouching down, to drop his weapon.

The man responded, “They’re shooting at me!”

Ramos said he also saw someone firing gunshots from the passenger side of a blue vehicle. Jurors earlier saw a video recording of a blue Ford Fusion arriving and leaving the scene.

Adele Burt Brown, attorney for D’Markeo Taylor, asked if shots from the blue vehicle came toward Ramos.

“No, if they were, I would have taken a shot,” Ramos said.

Chazerae Taylor, 40, is charged with murder and wanton endangerment. His son, D’Markeo Taylor, 21, and two others, Lamonte Williams, 22, and D’Vonta Middlebrooks, 23, are charged with wanton endangerment. Middlebrooks is also charged with being a felon in possession of a handgun.

Trinity, 15, was shot in the neck in the exchange of gunfire. She was the daughter of Olympian Tyson Gay.

The man in the white T-shirt has been previously identified as Chazerae Taylor. When interviewed by Lexington detective Tyson Carroll, Chaz Taylor said he fired two shots into the air to disperse the crowd of young people who were hanging out around Cook Out.

D’Markeo Taylor had been robbed of gun late on Oct. 15, so he, his father and another man went to Cook Out in the early morning hours of Oct. 16 to find the robber.

The blue Ford Fusion they took to Cook Out was later found to have bullet holes in the trunk and rear windshield. Another bullet hole was found near the sunroof and a live .380-caliber bullet was found inside the car.

This story was originally published October 10, 2018 at 12:49 PM.