'Everybody deserves to hear the truth': 6th Street mass shooting suspect testifies in murder trial

AUSTIN (KXAN) — "I was just scared...I didn't want to go to jail," De'ondre White, on trial for murder told a courtroom on Wednesday.

White is accused of firing at least eight times into a large crowd, killing an innocent bystander, Douglas Kantor in June 2021. This incident is now referred to as the Sixth Street mass shooting.

Kantor was in town celebrating his recent grad-school graduation.

White took the stand, as the final witness in a two-week trial on Wednesday.

He admitted to trying to get away with firing into the crowd, even fleeing the scene and hiding his phone and gun after.

However, White maintains he was mixed up with a person who had, "beef," with people from "Stretch Gang," a well-known group that promotes violence in Killeen.

White testified someone from the gang, in a ski mask approached him and his friends and started to pull out a gun.

“I was just trying to shoot at a downward position, I wasn’t trying to shoot in the center in...My sole focus was just on the dude with the ski mask…because he was the one who was pulling out a gun," White said.

White said he was nervous and scared when he realized someone had died as a result of the shooting. "I was hoping that it wasn't true," he said. "I didn’t want to hurt nobody else, I was just trying to get them away."

White lied to the lead detective in the case about what really happened two years ago and admits to that. His decision to take the stand, testifying in his own defense on Wednesday came down to this: "Everybody, the victim's family, deserves to hear the truth," White told the court.

This story will be updated by Reporter Jala Washington.