He sits every day in the front row of the gallery, quietly watching a parade of horrors, sometimes nodding, mostly staring straight ahead.
One after another, witnesses take the stand in the downtown Phoenix courtroom, each talking about some ghastly injury or murder. All the while, Paul Patrick sits nearly motionless and listens.
The physical pain and psychological damage caused by the Serial Shooters, who authorities say cruised the Valley in 2005 and 2006 looking for easy targets, are as real to Patrick as they are to anyone. He was shot like many of the others. Blasted by a shotgun while walking alone at night.
He still carries inside his body 100 pellets that doctors were never able to remove. He still wakes up with nightmares and throbbing pain.
Whatever almost anyone says on the stand about the time he or she was shot or the day a loved one died, Patrick can relate to it.
And that’s why he’s quietly watching the trial of Serial Shooter suspect Dale Hausner.
Patrick, 48, sees himself as “the face of the victims.”
He is one of at least 17 people who authorities say survived the cruelty of Hausner, a Mesa man accused in a 14-month string of shootings, which included eight killings.
The court has allowed victims to sit in on every part of the trial so far. It is a courtesy not extended to other witnesses like police officers or medical examiners.
But since opening arguments took place on Oct. 6, Patrick has been the only survivor in court every day.
In an interview on Friday, a day after he testified in the case, Patrick said he sees himself as sort of an unofficial representative of the many lives taken or changed by the shooting spree.
“It’s my beautiful duty,” Patrick said. “They’re not just going to be insignificant names. There’s going to be a face to this. It’s going to be human.”
Photo by Julio Jimenez, Tribune. Paul Patrick, 48, of Phoenix testified in the Serial Shooter trial Thursday. He shows the wounds he suffered when he was shot at close range with a shotgun in June of 2006. Programming note: Trial coverage will return Monday.
