Widow describes watching husband being gunned down

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A widow tearfully described the chilling moments before her husband was killed Tuesday.

Channel 2's Tom Jones was in court Tuesday for the trial of two men accused of killing David Rucker. Ashley Gay said her husband died trying to protect his family. She cried as she testified about how a normal family night turned into a nightmare.

Gay described how she and her husband put their three young children to bed at the Brooks Crossing Apartments last June. She said her husband screamed, "My kids (are) in here," to two masked men who burst into their home before they shot him.

Clayton County prosecutors said Rucker, 25, couldn't protect himself from murder suspects Joseph Harris and Denirio Cunningham. Police said they went to Rucker's apartment to rob him.
   
Gay and her husband were watching TV when they heard someone come through a back window.

"David ran back to the room with us and slammed the door," Gay said.

She said they ran into a room where two of their children were sleeping, and the intruders started kicking down the door where her other child was sleeping.

"I just kept screaming, 'My baby's in there,'" Gay said.

Gay said that's when the men started kicking down the door to the room they were in.

"Me and David tried our best to hold that door up," Gay said.

Gay said the men broke in, her husband pushed one of them, and that's when she heard a gunshot. The intruders ran away.

"My husband is shot. My husband is laying on the ground," Gay told a 911 operator at the time.

She covered her ears as the call was played in court Tuesday.

Attorneys for Harris and Cunningham said there is no evidence to prove their clients were involved in the shooting, but a man testified he drove the pair to Rucker's apartment complex the night of the murder.

"They said they were trying to hit a lick," Keith Alexander said.

Alexander said the pair stormed back to his truck 15 minutes later and told him to drive off. He said Harris told him it got crazy in the apartment, and Cunningham told him he pulled the trigger.

"He just said, 'I shot him,'" Alexander said.

The defense said Alexander's testimony was different than his written statement, but prosecutors said he was very consistent.

Gay said her husband knew Harris.

WSBTV