National Football League

Surviving witness in Hernandez case recalls 'panic'

Published Mar. 8, 2017 9:09 p.m. ET

BOSTON (AP) A surviving witness in the double-murder trial of ex-NFL star Aaron Hernandez has recalled the ''panic'' he felt when two friends were killed in Boston in 2012.

Aquilino Freire was in the back seat of a BMW when Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado were killed.

Appearing in court Wednesday, Freire says he heard a man's voice yell, ''What up (expletive)'' before gunshots rang out. CBS Boston reports (http://cbsloc.al/2n83gKs ) Freire recalls waving for help while bleeding heavily from his right arm. He says he told de Abreau to ''keep strong'' and says ''it was like panic.''

Freire says the group was ''just drinking, having fun'' inside the Cure Lounge beforehand.

Prosecutors accuse Hernandez of fatally shooting both men as he rode in a silver Toyota 4Runner.