'He panted, sat on the grass and died':
Witness describes horrific final moments
of Florida Britons as they tried to flee gunman
· Police probe possibility that the friends took a wrong turn while walking
to a 24-hour diner for an early morning breakfast
· 'We just see a white dude laid out. There's blood everywhere': police release
transcript of witness's 911 call
The horrific final moments of the two Brits gunned down in a Florida ghetto have been described by a key witness.
In graphic testimony, the witness told how he saw James Cooper and James Kouzaris stumble away from the gunman before they collapsed and died on a run-down estate in Newtown, Sarasota.
The witness, who cannot be named for fear of revenge attacks, said he heard five shots ring out before peering out of the window to see what had happened.
Describing the moment he saw Mr Cooper, the witness told the Sun: 'I saw a blond-haired man bleeding from three gunshot wounds to his chest.
'He staggered underneath a clothes line and over tree roots. He panted, stopped and just sat down on the grass where he died.'
His attention then turned to Mr Kouzaris, he said: 'This dark-haired man shuffled across the street bleeding from a bullet wound to his head and slumped in a driveway next to the front of a pick-up truck.'
It was then the witness, who had been watching television at around 2.50am, called 911.
Detectives are probing the possibility that the friends may have taken a wrong turn while walking to a 24-hour diner for an early morning breakfast.
But the friends ended up on a run-down estate after their night out in the upmarket resort of Sarasota.
Detectives are exploring an innocent but increasingly compelling explanation of just how James Cooper and James Kouzaris could have ended up on a run-down estate after a night out in the upmarket resort of Sarasota.
Captain Paul Sutton admitted that detectives had previously ignored lifestyle differences between Britons and Americans and assumed the tourists would never have dreamed of trying to get around on foot. map of the fateful journey
He said they were now more open to the idea they walked, after learning from the victims families that the two men, friends from their Sheffield University days, used to go hiking together.
The Gator Bar, the last venue that police believe the pair visited early on Saturday morning, is just 1.5miles away from a branch of IHOP, a popular 24-hour diner chain and one of the few places in the city to get food at that hour.
Captain Sutton said the...
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