Washington said he had been at the loft for five minutes when someone knocked at the door. Washington got up from playing with a Playstation game and let in a man police identified as Deandre Johnson, 32, whom Walters had invited over.
Ten minutes later, Johnson said he had to pick up his sister. Washington let him out but said he was forced back into the split-level loft when a second man appeared at the door.
Johnson pulled out a gun, Washington said, and the second man -- identified by police as 28-year-old Lovell Brown -- pulled out a 15-inch machete. The two ordered Walters and Washington to empty their pockets, then tied up Walters' girlfriend and threw a bedsheet over her and her two sons, ages 3 and 5.
The men ransacked the loft, apparently looking for event proceeds. One man gashed the victims with the machete, and the intruders eventually forced Walters to open a safe containing $3,000, Washington said.
Believing there was more cash to be had, Brown began to beat the captive men and ordered Washington to bind Walters, telling them, "I'll go and kill the kids and that girl if you don't give me the rest of the money," according to Washington's account.
'I'M SORRY I DID IT'
Meanwhile, Johnson went upstairs to check on the woman and her children. He had already set his gun down once during the ordeal, and Washington noticed that he had done so again.
"Damn, the gun is there again -- he left it on the couch. I can't believe it," Washington said he thought to himself.
He went for the gun and held it on Brown.
"He flinched toward me. I flinched back. The gun went off," Washington said.
"It hit him in the head. I really didn't mean to shoot the guy. I'm sorry I did it."
Washington said he gave the gun to his friend to hold on the surviving robber. Walters called 911. Washington then went up to check on the woman and her children.
From upstairs, he said, he heard his friend say, "Stay down! Don't move! Don't get up! Don't get up!"
Then he heard, "He's getting up, he's getting up!" and then gunfire. Johnson died later at the hospital.
"I'm sorry," Washington said. "I didn't mean for anyone to die. It should never have happened."
E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at
[email protected].