A witness at a murder trial told the Supreme Court he heard a man on a motorcycle ask his fellow rider “Did you see how he fell?” minutes after gunshots rang out.

The bystander, who cannot be named for legal reasons, recognised both men — and pointed them out in court yesterday as defendants Zikai Cann and Jermaine Simmons.

Both men have denied the premeditated murder and use of a firearm in the December 15, 2009 killing of 22-year-old Garry Cann, whom the jury has heard belonged to the Parkside gang.

Mr Cann was gunned down at about 10pm that night, shortly after he and his girlfriend got out of a car upon arriving at her Sound View Road residence in Sandys.

The defendant Mr Cann, 24, resided a short distance away on the same road at the time, while Mr Simmons is from Spring Benny Road, Sandys.

The victim’s girlfriend, Sancha Durham, earlier recalled seeing a gun pointed at her, but testified that she heard two people fleeing the scene.

Although yesterday’s witness assured Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves that he was telling the truth from the stand, and that he had seen and identified both men — he also admitted that in his first statement to police, he’d lied.

“For my safety, I will lie,” he told the court.

However, he said he hadn’t lied in his account of hearing what he recognised as gunshots while he walked along Somerset Road on the night of the killing, telling the jury he knows the sound from his time in the Bermuda Regiment.

Around two or two-and-a-half minutes later, he said, a bike pulled up at the stop sign for Sound View Road, and he recognised Mr Cann as the passenger, with Mr Simmons, or “Blacky”, as the driver.

He said he also recognised Mr Simmons’ vehicle.

“I looked at them and they looked at me,” he recounted, adding: “I’ve been in Somerset all my life, so I knew those guys.”

He said Mr Cann, whom he knew as Kai, would often prank him by riding his motorcycle at him and then swerving away, as well as making shooting gestures with his hand.

The witness gave a statement to the police on the morning after the shooting, saying he knew people had seen him out walking — but that he had refrained from openly identifying them, out of fear.

Asked by Crown counsel Loxly Ricketts about a statement he gave to police on March 19 of this year, the witness said his reason had again been fear.

“Things were happening that I didn’t like,” he said, recalling a bike riding up to his house in the middle of the night.

After the shooting, he said: “I’ve always had respect in Somerset from the young people. By early December, I seem to have lost that respect.”

He continued: “There were some gun gestures from some of the guys. Some name calling. I was called a rat, number one.”

Asked by the prosecutor who had called him such things, the witness named Dionte Darrell and Josh Commissiong.

“Did you take these gun gestures seriously?” Mr Ricketts asked, to which the witness replied: “Yes.”

He added that in January of this year, he had received a letter from the Department of Public Prosecutions but hadn’t discovered it until March, when he found it wedged in his letterbox. He was informed that he could be summoned as a witness at Mr Cann’s upcoming trial.

“So I had a panic attack,” he said, adding that he promptly left the Somerset area for a different part of the Island because “I was scared”.

“Why did you take the gestures seriously?” asked Mr Ricketts.

“Because I knew that they had seen me that night, the night of the shooting — Zikai and Blacky. They knew that I saw them. I was afraid of what would happen if I stayed,” said the witness.

He gave a full account to police on March 19, 2014 — but, under cross examination by defence lawyer Charles Richardson, numerous differences emerged between the recent statement and his earlier statements.

On December 16, 2009, he had told police the bike had driven quickly away without stopping at the junction.

“I don’t remember that,” the witness replied. “I don’t think so.”

He had also told police that he heard “aggressive obscenities” but never mentioned hearing the words “Did you see how he fell?”

The witness said he didn’t remember the first statement, but admitted he told police he knew everybody in the area and couldn’t recognise who was on the bike.

“That was a lie,” the witness conceded, under questioning from Mr Justice Greaves.

However, he denied harbouring a dislike for the defendant because of Mr Cann’s teasing, or that he held a grudge over apparently losing his good standing in the community after the shooting incident and the taunts that followed. The trial continues.