Removing his teenage son from life support was the "hardest thing I've ever had to do," Richard Farris said Thursday.
The second-hardest thing was to not let anyone seek revenge against the young man accused of killing him, Farris said outside the courtroom where Eurie Nunley is on trial for murder.
"I didn't want violence to lead to more violence," he said.
Nunley, 22, of the Hill District, is charged with homicide in the slaying of Darwin Palmer, 17, of Bloomfield, in April 2003 when he was gunned down outside a Hill District high-rise. He also is scheduled to stand trial later for the January 2004 fatal shooting of Kevin Somerville, 23, of Turtle Creek, who prosecutors said could have testified against Nunley.
Palmer, a junior at McNaugher Education Center in the North Side, identified his assailant before losing consciousness in a pool of his own blood, a Pittsburgh Housing Authority Police officer testified as the trial began before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donald E. Machen.
"I got down on the ground and sat next to him. I asked who shot him, and he asked if (he) was going to die," said the officer, James Payne. "I said, 'I don't know. It doesn't look good.'
"I asked him again who shot and he said, 'Eurie shot me,' " Payne continued. "I said, 'Eurie Nunley shot you?' And he said yes."
Police officers knew Nunley from when he was pistol-whipped and shoved into a car in nearby Elmore Square in July 2002 by several gunmen. At least one witness identified Palmer's older brother, Richard Palmer, as one of the kidnappers, although he was never charged.
Investigators suspect Nunley killed Darwin Palmer -- whom they consider to be an innocent victim -- as revenge.
"He just rolled right up and said, 'I want your brother, but since I found you --' and started shooting," Farris said. "Now I grew up in the streets, too. But you don't just shoot an innocent kid over nothing."
A witness, Victor Noel, 30, of the Hill District, initially told police he saw a yellow Ford Mustang speed away from the shooting scene. That car, which was rented, was found a few minutes later in front of Nunley's home.
But Noel yesterday recanted that statement to police and testified, "I didn't see nothing -- at all."
During the investigation, Somerville told police he rented the Mustang and let Nunley borrow it that day. But Somerville was killed -- also with an assault rifle -- before he could testify.
"It's hard sitting in court thinking about all he did," said Farris, 40, who recalled his son as a "big athlete with big dreams."
"He got into fights, normal teenage stuff, but he was really a good kid," Farris said.
A father of two small children, Darwin Palmer played basketball and football and enjoyed visiting his older sister, Teshia Palmer, and three nephews in the Hill District.
"We all miss him," Teshia Palmer said.
Police in Elizabeth, N.J., also identified Nunley as a suspect in a fatal shooting there in April 2004. He has not been charged with that killing.
Nunley's trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
