A man allegedly targeted by a gang has described running for his life from a “dark figure” outside his house — only to be gunned down before he could reach safety.

Lo’Torean Durrant, 23, took the stand on the opening day of trial for Blaine Simmons, 19 — a Carifta Games long jumper and sprinter now accused of attempted murder.

Mr Durrant told the jury he’d taken a taxi back to his Somerset home on March 19, as a precaution because a man claiming to be a Parkside gangster had attacked him at a bus stop in January 2013.

On the night before the attack, two men in dark clothes on a bike had twice passed him outside his residence, staring at him in an intimidating and “hard” manner after he exited a friend’s car.

The men returned with the cycle’s lights off as he neared his front door.

The driver of the cab, Evan Smith, who fled the scene when shots rang out, told the Supreme Court that he’d seen Mr Durrant pursued by a man disguised with a “Scream”-style horror movie mask.

Mr Simmons, of Southampton, has denied attempted murder, as well as using a firearm to commit an indictable offence.

Summing up the prosecution’s case, Crown counsel Loxly Ricketts told the jury the victim sensed “something which caused him to be suspicious” when he arrived home that night.

“He ran off, and someone chased him,” Mr Ricketts said. “That person, we are saying, was Mr Simmons.”

Mr Durrant managed to grab the taxi door but took a bullet in the back as the car was moving.

The shot, which knocked him to the ground, passed through his body and lodged in the car’s passenger door.

Wounded in the back and front in the area of his liver, Mr Durrant hid in bushes outside a derelict house until emergency personnel arrived.

Mr Ricketts told the jury Mr Simmons was held by police at his home after the shooting, and items of his were taken away and tested.

“We’re saying those test results show that he did in fact fire the firearm,” the prosecutor added.

Defence lawyer Marc Daniels, however, sought evidence from witnesses to suggest that incriminating traces of gunshot residue may have been inadvertently left on items by police contamination.

The jury may also hear about gangs in Bermuda over the course of the trial, expected to last two weeks.

Mr Durrant, an unemployed resident of Scott’s Hill Road, raised his shirt yesterday in court to show jurors the scars of entry and exit bullet wounds.

Describing coming home after shopping at the Maximart in Sandys, Mr Durrant said he got out of the cab and headed for his front door.

“I was starting to go across the yard, to go to my steps, and I saw a dark figure,” he said. “And I ran.”

He saw the taxi turning onto Beacon Hill Road and sprinted after it.

“I was running, I just heard a shot go off, and I hit the taxi and then I was on the ground,” he said, adding that the driver “panicked” and drove off.

“I lay there, and someone called me a bitch,” Mr Durrant added — describing the accent as male and Bermudian.

Getting to his feet, the victim hid in undergrowth and realised his jacket was soaked with blood.

He remained concealed until a fire truck arrived.

Mr Durrant said he’d switched from public transport to taxis after a man approached him in January, 2013 at a Somerset bus stop — asking him about his mother’s name and his older brother before declaring himself to be “from the Parkside gang” and punching him.

Taxi driver Evan Smith told the jury he’d dropped Mr Durrant at the house near Beulah Tabernacle Church on the following night and then driven off.

“I just happened to look over my left shoulder, and I saw the fellow running toward the taxi as I turned the corner,” Mr Smith continued.

There were two shots as the victim managed to partially open the front passenger door, he said.

“I could see a guy behind him as he tried to get into the taxi and he fell,” Mr Smith said, saying the assailant was about ten feet behind and chasing Mr Durrant.

Heading immediately for Somerset Police Station, Mr Smith said he felt a bump, adding: “Regrettably, I drove over part of his body.”

He recognised the sound of gunshots from his Bermuda Regiment training and had heard gunshots before in the Court Street area, adding: “I also smelled gunpowder.”

During cross examination, Mr Daniels repeatedly asked Mr Smith about what he may have touched in the car after the shooting.

Mr Smith said he didn’t touch the bullet hole with his hands, but couldn’t recall whether his clothing may have come into contact with it.

Mr Daniels also questioned Det Sgt Peter Thompson of the forensic support unit — who described swabbing a cellular phone for gunshot residue (GSR) and DNA — on whether firearms officers might contaminate a crime scene by walking through it.

Det Sgt agreed that it was a possibility, depending on the circumstances.

The trial continues.