Kiara Fuller denies “road raging” minutes before her then-fiance,Terell Josey, fatally shot a veteran Detroit firefighter in Troy last summer.
Rather, she claims, she and Josey were victimized by the other driver, Frank Dombrowski, 55, who ended up dead after subsequently confronting Josey in a gas station parking lot on Rochester Road — while she and Josey’s toddler stayed in her vehicle
Fuller is among those who’ve testified so far at Josey’s trial, ongoing this week before Judge Daniel O’Brien at Oakland County Circuit Court. Josey, 27, is charged with homicide-open murder, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony and carrying a concealed weapon.
Dombrowski, of Rochester Hills, was pronounced dead at an area hospital soon after the shooting.
Attorney Marc Lakin is building a self-defense case, claiming Dombrowski was the aggressor in the incident — under the influence of alcohol and Methadone — who had Josey fearing for his life and that of Fuller and young son.
Court records state Dombrowski’s blood alcohol content was .22 percent, nearly three times the legal limit. His toxicology results also list Methadone, which reportedly wasn’t prescribed to him.
Taking the stand Wednesday afternoon, Fuller detailed her account of what happened the night of July 5, 2021 on Rochester Road. Fuller said she, Josey and his 2-year-old son were on the way to the Detroit home of Josey’s parents when another driver — later identified as Dombrowski — made a sharp right-hand turn on a red light from South Boulevard directly in front of her vehicle, nearly causing what she believes would’ve been a serious crash had she not immediately steered into the next lane to avoid it. She honked her horn, and then Dombrowski flipped his middle finger at them and yelled out his open window, “F**k you, f**k off,” she said.
Fuller testified that her response to Dombrowski was “How are you mad and us when you almost caused an accident?” Dombrowski replied with “F**k you, b**ch”, and then he and Josey began a back-and-forth exchange of “yelling and cussing,” Fuller testified.
‘I don’t have time for this’
Fuller testified that, as both vehicles continued down Rochester Road, Josey said Dombrowski spat at him and “called him the ‘N’ word.”
Then, she said, Dombrowski further messed with them on the roadway, refusing to let their vehicle pass his, repeatedly changing lanes, pulling in front of them and “brake checking” so they couldn’t get by.
Yet, Fuller said, neither she nor Josey got rattled by Dombrowski’s actions and carried on a “regular conversation” as they traveled for a couple more miles. She then decided to turn into a Shell gas station to get juice for Josey’s child, and Dombrowski pulled in front of them on the roadway and also drove into the gas station parking lot.
Surveillance video presented in court shows what unfolded at the scene, with Fuller driving into the gas station three seconds after Dombrowski and stopping directly behind him.
Fuller said she wasn’t focused on Dombrowski then; she just wanted to get the juice and let the situation go.
“Terell says, ‘what is he (Dombrowski) doing?’ I responded, I don’t know. Just get the baby juice, and if he says something, ignore him,” Fuller recounted, adding that Josey wasn’t angry.
Then, she testified, Dombrowski came running toward them, “cussing.”
“Josey put his hands up and said ‘I don’t have time for this,’ then said he has a woman and a baby in the car, and told Dombrowski to go back to his, Fuller said.
At that point, Dombrowski tried to punch Josey, who “caught his fist in mid-air” — and the two began to “tussle,” Fuller testified.
Assistant prosecutor Nick McIntyre noted that Fuller’s statement to police didn’t include anything about Dombrowski throwing a punch.
Gunfire
Fuller said she was looking in her vehicle for the toddler’s cup when she heard one gunshot — which she initially thought was fireworks — and then another. She didn’t witness the shooting but said she saw both Josey and Dombrowski both had a hand on Josey’s gun. Josey then got back in the car and told her to drive away — telling her his gun “went off.”
Three shell casings from a 9mm semi-automatic handgun were recovered from the scene, according to investigators, with one bullet found lodged in the gas station’s wall.
Fuller testified that she never saw Dombrowski fall to the ground, but the video shows he did drop to the ground when he was shot.
Fuller said they first headed to Josey’s parents’ home to drop off the toddler, and Josey left for a short while with his cousin. Later, police would be directed to a vacant home in Detroit where Josey had reportedly stashed the gun. then went to her parents’ home where she said she gave her mother “a vague story” about what had happened that night. They left their vehicle there and took another car to the Troy Police Department to report the incident — not knowing that Dombrowski was dead. Police told them at some point during their separate interviews, Fuller said.
On cross examination, Fuller said the incident with Dombrowski left her “heartbroken,” particularly as she was “reliving it” on the stand.
Fuller said she and Josey had always planned to tell police what had happened but first had to “make sure the baby was safe, and then go back.”
When asked why she pulled up directly in front of Dombrowski at the gas station, Fuller testified that she was “just thinking about the juice” — not Dombrowski — and got frightened when she saw him running toward them. She denied that she and Josey had any conversation about retaliating for what transpired on the roadway.
