INDIANAPOLIS — Prosecutors say Elliahs Dorsey fired a hail of gunshots blindly through a closed door when he killed Metropolitan Police Officer Breann Leath in 2020.
"Eight gunshots sliced through that door, through those walls and right into Breann's Leath's head," Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Nate Leffler told a Marion County jury Monday.
"Those officers had no idea what was waiting for them behind that door."
Dorsey's trial began Monday on murder and other charges for allegedly shooting Leath to death; wounding a woman and attempting to kill three other officers on the east side on April 9, 2020.
Leath's mother was the first witness to take the stand. She testified that she had a sick feeling that day before she got word that Breann had been shot.
"I felt like I felt it before I knew," Jennifer Leath testified. "Someone had sent me a text and told me they were trying to find Breann but they couldn’t find her... I knew in my heart she was gone."
Defense attorneys say Dorsey was suffering delusions that day.
"He was acting weird," Public Defender Deana Martin told jurors. "He got up that morning believing his family had been killed and that he was going to be killed."
Dorsey's lawyers are asking the jury to find him not responsible by reason of insanity.
Joseph Charles, a former IMPD officer, testified about the domestic call he and Leath answered at the apartment complex near 21st street and Shadeland Avenue.
Charles told the jury that he, Leath and two other officers were outside the apartment door when the bullets rang out.
He felt a piece of drywall or something hit his face and thought he'd been shot, Charles said. He testified that he looked down and saw Leath on the ground, her hand on her gun.
There was a bullet wound near her left eye, he said.
"I knew she was dead," Charles said.
Charles told the jury that he is no longer with IMPD because of the stress he felt after Leath's death.
Leath, 24, had been on IMPD about two-and-a-half years. She left behind a young son.
Dorsey also shot and wounded a woman who was in the apartment with him and tried to run away, prosecutors say. That woman survived and is expected to be called later as a witness.
Dorsey has been charged with murder, four counts of attempted murder, criminal confinement and battery. His trial is expected to conclude next week.
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on X/Twitter: @vicryc.
