Retrial opens for 2 accused in 2018 ambush shootout in Algiers: 'An assassination attempt'

A brazen gun battle in Algiers eight years ago played out in late-afternoon traffic and left dozens of people “trapped in the middle of gunfire on General de Gaulle Drive,” a prosecutor said Monday. “In the moment, people were just thinking about getting out alive,” Assistant Attorney General Daniel Smart told a jury as a retrial got underway for two men accused in the violence. Smart said defendant Dermell Lewis ran down the busy street firing rounds from two rifles, an SKS and an AK-47, one in each hand. When one jammed, he pulled out a .40-caliber pistol as alleged accomplice Corey Major kept pace in a white truck, Smart said. Prosecutors said a white truck and a Toyota Camry pulled up beside Corey Juluke in traffic, and Lewis and others fired 19 rounds at him. “This wasn’t a carjacking. This wasn’t a robbery. This was an assassination attempt,” said Smart. The problem for prosecutors: Juluke, 55, claims otherwise. “I saw a person I never saw before shooting me.

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