Zairyre Simmons was abused as a child and grew up in the foster care system.

He watched a person get shot while playing basketball at a Homewood playground and later lost his best friend and older brother to violence.

All of those circumstances — along with a 2018 incident when Simmons said he was kidnapped, held hostage and pistol whipped — have resulted in post-traumatic stress disorder, three experts testified on Friday.

But those experts differ on whether that diagnosis impacted Simmons’ actions on Nov. 9, 2022, when he followed a co-worker out of the Taco Bell on Cochran Road in Scott Township to a neighboring business and fatally shot him.

Simmons’ trial began on Wednesday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer.

He is charged with killing Dorian Carver, 32, of Harrison inside the lobby of Northwestern Mutual Life insurance.

Simmons, who was a shift manager at the fast food restaurant, testified on Friday that he issued a written reprimand to Carver a few days before the shooting, though he didn’t want to.

“I’ve seen him with a gun in the past,” Simmons, 26, of Pittsburgh said. “It seemed to indicate to me he wasn’t somebody to be messed with.”

Simmons cited a music video Carver played for him in which Carver could be seen firing a gun.

“Were you afraid of Dorian?” defense attorney Greg Stein asked.

“Yes, intimidated,” Simmons answered.

Earlier in the trial, the prosecution showed the jury a picture of Simmons holding a gun.

‘My heart is pounding’

On the day of the shooting, Simmons testified, Carver approached Simmons and asked him why he’d written him up for slacking off on the job

Then, Carver challenged him to go outside to fight, calling him derogatory names, Simmons continued.

Carver left the restaurant, and Simmons followed him out, admitting he was the first one to swing.

Then, Carver put him in a headlock.

“[He] told me he was going to go get a gun and kill me,” Simmons testified.

Carver also told him he shouldn’t be there when he got back, he said.

“My ears are ringing. My heart is pounding,” Simmons recounted. “I have a lot of adrenaline going. It was like I was underwater.”

He characterized it as “tunnel vision.”

After Carver left, Simmons ran back into the restaurant, grabbed his jean jacket, which had his gun in the pocket, and ran back out.

He followed Carver.

“I couldn’t think straight. I just knew I couldn’t be trapped or in a position where I’d be surprised,” Simmons said. “All the past violence I’d been in, I’d always been caught off guard.”

As he followed Carver, Simmons said Carver yelled, “‘come check it out. I got something for you.’”

By the time they got to the insurance building, he said Carver’s hands were in his waistband. Simmons said he thought he might be concealing a weapon.

“I grabbed my gun out of my right pocket, I chambered a round and fired twice,” Simmons said. “I thought he was about to shoot me.”

Simmons told the jury his ears rang from the gunfire, and his body became numb.

He went outside and asked a man to use his phone.

That man, though, ran away, so Simmons did, too.

He dropped the gun as he ran, he said. Eventually, he took a bus Downtown, borrowed someone’s phone and called his mom.

“I called my mom to tell her I was sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody.”

Then he turned himself in.

Simmons told the jury he regretted his actions and never intended to shoot Carver.

On cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Jarrod Caruso asked Simmons why, if he was afraid, did he follow Carver out of the restaurant and then into the insurance building.

“Did you at any point think to leave?” the prosecutor asked.

“No,” Simmons said.

Earlier in the day, two experts testified on the defendant’s behalf.

‘Severe’ PTSD

Sara Makin, a psychotherapist, said she evaluated Simmons on Feb. 1, 2019, and diagnosed him with chronic PTSD.

“His symptoms were quite severe,” she said.

Makin listed his symptoms at the time as hypervigilance, nightmares, flashbacks and difficulty sleeping.

Simmons had come to her because he did not feel like himself.

“He had a hard time remembering things,” Makin said. “He had a lot of symptoms that were interfering with his daily life.”

Beth Bliss, who did a forensic evaluation of Simmons in July 2023, also said he has PTSD.

Bliss said she reviewed medical and social services records and conducted testing on Simmons.

She concluded that his past trauma led to PTSD.

On one test, which measures adverse childhood events, Simmons met nine of 10 criteria, Bliss said.

She told the jury that trauma and childhood experiences can make a person perceive things differently — and not use logical problem-solving or thoughtfulness.

“They tend to respond with more defensive aggression than others,” she said.

Prosecution’s response

After the defense rested its case, the prosecution called Dr. Bruce Wright, a psychiatrist, in rebuttal.

Wright agreed that Simmons had PTSD based on his history, but that doesn’t mean he was actively showing symptoms of it at the time of the shooting.

He also said that Simmons’ results on a test conducted by Bliss that measures malingering suggested he was exaggerating his symptoms.

“He was trying to appear more impaired than he was,” Wright said.

Both sides have rested their case, and closing arguments will begin Monday morning.

Although Simmons was originally charged with criminal homicide, receiving stolen property for the gun he used and being a person not to possess a firearm, the defense moved for the two lesser charges to be dismissed on Friday.

Stein argued that the prosecution failed to present any evidence to support them.

Beemer granted the motion.

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