BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.,None — On Thursday, a Brevard County jury heard from the man accused of shooting a Fish and Wildlife officer six times.
Christopher Eddy is on trial for shooting Florida Fish and Wildlife Officer Vann Streety during a traffic stop in July 2009. He faces life in prison if he’s convicted.
Prosecutors played a WFTV video that was shot moments after Eddy was captured in Melbourne beach in 2009.
Eddy hid out in the palmetto bushes along the beach for almost two full days before he was caught by sheriff's deputies.
Deputies testified he didn't resist when he was ultimately caught.
Eddy’s attorneys said he shot Streety in self-defense, claiming he feared the officer was going to use excessive force.
After the shooting, his girlfriend dropped him off at a Publix grocery store and he made his way to the beach, deputies said. He was caught after a man found him hiding in his van in a beach parking lot.
Prosecutors played a video recorded just after he was caught in which he offers up his own explanation of why he fired shots at the officer.
"If I wanted to kill him I could have…all I wanted was a peaceful life," Eddy said in the video.
The jury watched the entire recording intensely.
The defense did not raise any objections to the video, in part because it plays into their case that Eddy was illegally stopped and that he didn't shoot the officer to kill him.
At the end of the video he could be heard saying he guessed he would be going away to jail for a long time.
Prosecutors also called the emergency room surgeon who helped repair the wounds to Streety’s arm and hand.
He said the officer will have problems with both his arm and his hand for the rest of his life.