A jury will decide if an Orrington man accused of shooting and wounding a Brewer man outside a restaurant in downtown Bangor nearly four years ago acted deliberately or if the Iraq War veteran was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jordan David Bishop, 36, is charged with aggravated attempted murder, attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and aggravated criminal mischief.
Bishop has pleaded not guilty to the charges in connection with the May 11, 2019, shooting outside Tesoro Italian Restaurant on Harlow Street. He has been free on bail since August 2019.
The jury of eight men and six women, including two alternates, heard opening statements Monday afternoon at the Penobscot Judicial Center after jury selection earlier in the day. The case is expected to go to the jury Thursday or Friday.
The shooting happened shortly before midnight May 11 while James Parent, 57, of Brewer was at Tesoro Italian Restaurant on Harlow Street, according to a police affidavit. He noticed Bishop, whom he did not know but who was “visibly intoxicated,” hanging around his truck.
The men got into a confrontation over Bishop allegedly urinating on Parent’s truck, according to court documents. That escalated to the point where Bishop allegedly shot Parent.
Parent suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and a grazing wound to the head and the back in the shooting. He is scheduled to testify Tuesday.
Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy, who is prosecuting the case, told jurors that they will see video evidence from security cameras inside and outside the restaurant of the events that led to charges being filed against Bishop.
Almy played video for the jury that showed Parent confronting Bishop after the defendant urinated near Parent’s truck.
Bishop, who was “very intoxicated,” stood outside the restaurant and gestured through the wind at Parent, Almy said. That got the attention of the bartender, who went out to tell Bishop to move on.
One patron in Tesoro’s recognized Bishop from their early years in Eastport. He tried unsuccessfully to persuade Bishop to leave, the video showed. When Bishop refused to leave the area, Parent, the bartender and other patrons forced Bishop to the pavement when his lip was bloodied, Almy said.
Bishop walked to the corner of Harlow and Central streets, where his truck was parked across from Bagel Central.
“He could have left. He had that choice,” Almy said. “The evidence will show that he got into his truck where he had his gun that was loaded. And, he drove around the block and parked across the street from the restaurant.”
At that point, the bartender turned the lights off to make it look like the restaurant had closed, the prosecutor said. He told Parent that Bishop was back and Parent went outside to check on his truck and saw Bishop pull a gun.
“He tried to run away and the defendant chased him,” Almy said. “If you look carefully, you’ll see the flashes from the gun when the defendant shot him. When they heard those gunshots, all the patrons fled for their safety.”
The video did not show Parent being shot, but he fled and hid in a stairwell until paramedics arrived.
Defense attorney Don Brown of Brewer said that “there’s a lot more to this story. Mr. Almy left out a lot.”
Bishop graduated from high school in Eastport and enlisted in the U.S. Army, was deployed to Iraq but experienced trauma that left him with post traumatic stress disorder, Brown told the jury.
“The first crime that occurred here, other than maybe urinating in public, was Jordan Bishop getting body slammed against Mr. Parent’s truck,” Brown said.
The defense attorney said that any of the patrons in the restaurant could have called 911 but didn’t. Brown said that they also could have ignored Bishop but instead forced him to the ground, strangled him and broke his nose.
Brown said that Bishop’s post traumatic stress disorder diagnosis means that the defendant could not have formed the intent to commit the crimes he is accused of committing.
“He may have been in a state where he was just trying to survive,” the defense attorney told jurors.
When the incident took place, Bishop was waiting for a bed in a Veterans Administration hospital out of state to receive treatment, according to Brown.
Bishop, in a white dress shirt and blue suit, wept as his attorney spoke to the jury.
The restaurant is under different ownership than it was at the time of the shooting.
If convicted of the most serious crime of attempted murder, Bishop faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
