David J. Grant, who is on trial for murder in New London Superior Court, admitted during a police interrogation that he became nervous after seeing a rival at the Mai Thai restaurant in June 2012 and shot into the crowd.

"I didn't really want to hit nobody," Grant said during the interrogation, which was recorded and shown in court Wednesday. "It was more like, scared."

Grant, 35, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is accused of firing the shots that killed 45-year-old Donna Richardson and wounded Richardson's niece Crystal Roderick on June 24, 2012. He is on trial in New London Superior Court for murder, first-degree assault and criminal possession of a firearm.

Norwich Police Sgt. Christopher Conley, who conducted the interview at city police headquarters in December 2012 after Grant waived his rights, was on the witness stand when prosecutor Stephen M. Carney began playing the recording late Wednesday. The jury will view the remainder of the two-hour interview Thursday.

Roderick, who had taken the witness stand earlier Wednesday and described Grant as a one-time friend, watched from the courtroom gallery as Grant admitted on the video that he knew she was standing near "Zay" when he fired the gun. He said his friend Steven "Cuda" Velez had handed him a gun moments before as they walked off the dance floor at closing time and told him "Zay" was present. "Zay," or Isaiah Lee, had allegedly shot a friend of Grant the year before the Mai Thai incident.

Grant told the detective that as he walked out of the bar toward the back entrance, he saw Lee "standing there like he had a gun or something." Grant said he was nervous because he had been shot recently in the face. Grant said he fired a shot "more toward the floor," then fell down the balcony stairs.

Grant said he heard what sounded like a gunshot and reacted by shooting again.

"I held my hand up," he said. "I pointed toward the air. I heard a whole bunch of shooting going on."

Another Mai Thai patron, Devon Jarmon, has admitted to shooting a gun into the air in front of the restaurant that night after hearing gunfire and getting caught up in the moment.

Also testifying Wednesday was Velez, who admitted from the witness stand that he drove Grant to Brooklyn after the shooting. Velez, who is charged with hindering prosecution, admitted that he and Grant were both drug dealers from New York City and that he brought Grant to Norwich "to make some money" about a year before the shootings.

Velez said that as he drove away from the scene, Grant threw the gun and the bullets out the car window "somewhere on Route 2." Velez, who is incarcerated on the hindering prosecution charge and a separate firearms charge, waived his rights and testified with his attorney, Christopher Morano, present. Velez said he intends to plead guilty to the charge and that he was not testifying with the hope of receiving consideration from the prosecutor.

"I'm doing this because I know the people" involved, Velez said, nodding toward Roderick and her family in the audience.

Norman R. Tonucci Jr., a groundskeeper at Mohegan Sun, testified earlier that he and a coworker were surveying the grounds along the Uncasville casino's access road on the morning after the shooting when the coworker spotted a gun "sitting right on top of the mulch." They put the gun in a bag and brought it to the tribal police. Carney showed the jury a photograph of the gun, a revolver with duct tape wrapped around the grip and barrel, and later entered the actual gun into evidence along with a semi-automatic handgun, presumably belonging to Jarmon, that was found in a driveway across the street from the crime scene.

Gunshot victim Roderick, a 31-year-old home health care worker, sat with family members and watched the trial after testifying that she once considered the defendant a friend. She said family members went to the Mai Thai to celebrate a graduation that afternoon and that she and her aunt, Richardson, stayed there to party with other relatives.

"I can't honestly say who shot me," Roderick said on the witness stand. "I heard three gunshots, one after another. I never heard a gun before, so I thought it was fireworks or something."

Roderick testified that she had known Grant, whom she called "D," for years. Roderick said she and Grant talked for 10 to 15 minutes on the balcony at the Mai Thai. About 15 minutes later, as she continued to smoke and socialize on the balcony, Roderick said she started feeling a heavy, burning sensation in her left thigh.

"I knew something happened, but I didn't know I got shot until I went into the bathroom," she said. A cousin pointed out that she was bleeding, someone pulled her pants down to look at the wound and she "went into a state of shock," Roderick testified. A surgeon who treated Roderick at The William W. Backus Hospital testified the injury was not life-threatening.

Roderick said she has a bullet hole on her right thigh and a scar from having the bullet removed.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Sebastian O. DeSantis produced a statement Roderick gave to police and asked her about the number of gunshots she heard that night. The statement indicated she heard four shots, according to DeSantis.

"I can recall hearing three to four" shots, Roderick said. "That's what I told them."

The jury also heard testimony Wednesday from state police Major Crime Squad Detective Jeff Payette and watched a video recording of the crime scene made by Payette.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN