Interviews Gives Details Of Collier Shooting

Published On: Oct 14 2011 11:59:36 AM EDT  Updated On: Jan 05 2009 10:43:22 AM EST
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -

Evidence in the court case against a man accused of firing 14 shots into a Jaguars offensive lineman on Labor Day gives a clearer picture of what happened that night.

Richard Collier was shot late on Sept. 1 as he and a former Jaguars player were sitting in an SUV waiting for two women to join them for an evening out.

More than a month later, police arrested Tyrone Hartsfield on an attempted murder charge, saying Collier's shooting was in retaliation for a fight at an Arlington nightclub last April.

"He was so hell-bent on getting revenge," Stephan Wilson told detectives when he was interviewed about driving Hartsfield to the shooting scene.

Channel 4 obtained from the State Attorney's Office video of Wilson's interview, along with audio of police interviews with Collier while he was in the hospital recovering, an interview with a man that allegedly provided Hartsfield the gun and a recording of the 911 call Hartsfield made the night he claims Collier beat him.

Collier would later tell police that he knew Hartsfield was out to get him. His friends knew it, too.

"Four months ago (I) had a fight with a guy and (someone said), 'Hey, the guy you had a fight with, here he comes now,'" Collier told detectives in late September.

Five months after the incident at the SOHO nightclub, Wilson says he and Hartsfield were at a San Marco nightclub when Collier walked in. Wilson said Hartsfield was elated when he spotted Collier.

"He's just saying, 'I'm going to get him. I prayed for this night,'" Wilson told detectives about Hartsfield.

"If I lose him now, there's no telling when I'm going to get him," Wilson quoted Hartsfield as saying. "I've been around to his house and everything."

Wilson told detectives that Hartsfield started calling people he knew to try and find a gun. Police said he finally got Tyrone Smith to agree to bring him a gun.

Wilson told police he and Hartsfield followed Collier's SUV to a Riverside apartment complex where the football player waited and ex-Jaguars Ken Pettway stopped to wait for two women.

Wilson told police Hartsfield walked up to the car and shot Collier -- 14 times according to investigators.

"Shots just rang out, I don't know how many. I just felt myself getting shot," Collier said.

Doctors would later say the severity of the injuries would have killed someone not as physically strong as Collier.

Previous Stories:

  • Copyright 2011 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.