PITTSBURGH -- Two state police troopers used unreasonable force during a foot chase that ended with an unarmed 12-year-old boy fatally shot in the back in Uniontown, an attorney for the boy's father told a jury.

"They violated the Constitution and they refused to take responsibility for their actions," attorney Geoffrey Fieger told jurors in his opening statement.

On Friday, famed pathologist and former Allegheny County coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht took the witness stand, as a wrongful death lawsuit continued against the troopers who shot Michael Ellerbe in December 2002.

It was the defense that had Wecht confirm Ellerbe would have been conscious and paraplegic for more than a half-minute after he was shot in the back while running away from the troopers.

"I said yes, for 30 to 45 seconds," said Wecht. "Because the heart and brain were intact and functioning. But the circulation, you see, had ceased. He would have remained conscious, moving into an ever-increasing degree of unconsciousness."

The doctor's testimony showed pain and suffering, said Fieger, who called it a terrible death.

Wecht testified he could not disagree.

"He would have been paralyzed from the waist down, because his spinal cord at that level was severed," said Wecht. "So, he would not have been able to move his legs. He would have been able to move the upper part of his body, including his arms, but he would not have been able to move his legs."

An attorney for the two troopers called the shooting heartbreaking, but justified given the tense situation.

The case against troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry that's being presented to the jury in federal court was filed by Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom.

Hickenbottom's lawyers and police give vastly differing accounts of what happened when the child was shot as he ran from a stolen sport utility vehicle.

Attorneys for Nassan and Curry said they were chasing the SUV and then followed Ellerbe on foot as he ran away from it. Ellerbe put his hand in his pocket, making the troopers think he might have a gun.

Nassan heard a gunshot and Curry fell to the ground. Thinking his partner had been shot, Nassan fired one shot that struck Ellerbe in the back and in the arm. Nassan would later learn that Curry had actually got tangled in a fence that discharged his weapon.

In testimony on Wednesday, jurors heard the 911 call made by Nassan just seconds after he fired the shot.

The call went as follows:

Dispatcher: "State police Uniontown. May I help you?

Nassan: "Call an ambulance. I shot him. Get an ambulance here quick."

Dispatcher: "What's your location?"

Nassan: "We're on foot pursuit. We're on ... Cleveland Avenue."

Dispatcher: "What is it?"

Nassan: "68 Cleveland Avenue. We're in the back."

Dispatcher: "OK. I got you."

Nassan: "Get them here quick."

Hickenbottom's attorneys said the shooting could not have happened as police claimed. They said Ellerbe was running away from the troopers, but presented no danger, and they said he never put his hands in his pocket.

Nassan and Curry both opened fire on Ellerbe and changed their stories to make themselves seem less culpable, according to the family's attorneys.

"They are not ever, ever permitted to shoot a child -- or even an adult -- who is running away from them," Fieger said.

Wecht said he believes the bullet fired by Nassan hit Ellerbe in the back, with the bullet moving from right to left.

The crime scene investigator hired by Ellerbe's family testified that he thinks the physical evidence doesn't match up with the trooper's version of what happened during that foot chase.

"The position taken by the troopers as to where they were at the time of the shooting is inconsistent in totality, in my opinion, with position," said witness David Balash.

Witness Angela Lee said part of the incident played out in front of her house. She testified that she believes Ellerbe was a passenger, not the driver of the stolen vehicle.

"They had their guns out, like, they were holding their guns out," said Lee. "There was someone trying to get out. They were climbing over something trying to get out."

When asked if that suggested Ellerbe was a passenger, Lee said, "Yeah, because they were climbing into the front like they were trying to get out."

A 15-year-old witness in a nearby house, who was 10 years old at the time of the incident, testified that he saw Ellerbe running away empty-handed from police. Then, he said, he heard three shots.

Andrew Fletcher, an attorney for the troopers, asked the jurors to consider the troopers' perspective in a situation he described as tense and unpredictable.

"They didn't violate the U.S. Constitution. Sam Nassan shot a fleeing felony suspect because he believed, he was sure, the suspect shot his partner," Fletcher said in his opening statement.

Fieger accused the troopers of changing their stories as evidence arose.

"We can't even keep them straight how many times they changed their story," he said.

Fletcher said that when Ellerbe was first stopped, he repeatedly failed to heed Nassan's orders to show his hands and threw the Bronco into reverse down an alleyway before exiting and fleeing on foot.

With a defiant suspect acting unpredictably and fleeing a stolen vehicle, the troopers were following regulations allowing them to have their guns drawn, Fletcher said.

Fletcher said the troopers did not change their stories and that Nassan thought Curry had fallen because he had been shot.

Fletcher showed a video depicting someone climbing the chain-link fence as Curry said he did. The trigger of the empty gun clicked on the fence and Fletcher said it was "easily done."

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