An Orangeburg woman says she does not remember some things, but she remembers the man who shot her in the leg.

“He had on a mask, he had on a black T-shirt, he had dark pants. He had a gun in his hand,” Irene Shannon testified Monday.

A Tennessee man went on trial Monday for allegedly shooting the Hillsboro Road woman and attempting to burglarize her home during a 2006 assault.

Antoinelle Latroy Owens, 28, of Chattanooga, Tenn., is facing charges of assault and battery with intent to kill and attempted first-degree burglary.

Assistant Solicitor Kelley Burbage said Shannon was leaving her home for work when she was confronted with a gun in her face.

Owens’ attorneys, however, maintain he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“And that wrong place wasn’t (the home), that wrong place was the cemetery,” defense attorney Peggy Hinds said in her opening statement.

Owens was apprehended in a ditch behind Memorial Park Cemetery on Broughton Street within a half-hour of Shannon reporting being shot by a gunman wearing a ski mask.

Shannon said on June 5, 2006, as she walked out of her door around 6 a.m., she was accosted by the gunman.

“In my hand, I had a cup of water and in my other, I had my daughter’s car seat,” she said. “He pushed me up against him and my body up by the wall.”

Shannon said she tried to find the key after the gunmen demanded she open the door.

She said her husband, currently serving a federal sentence on a drug charge, was still inside the residence at the time she was being assaulted.

“And what was he (the gunman) saying when he came up?” Sorenson said.

“‘I got your b - - - -! Open the door!’” Shannon said.

At that point, she believes she didn’t retrieve the door key fast enough for the gunman. Shannon was struck in the right thigh when the gunman fired at point-blank range.

“After you were shot in the leg, he took off at that point in time?” Sorenson said.

“Yes.”

According to the incident report, Shannon’s husband saw what was happening in the couple’s garage area and dialed 911.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Doug Mellard questioned Shannon about the short time she was in the gunman’s presence.

“So you walked out to your car, your husband, the drug dealer, is inside the house,” Mellard said. “And a man ran around the corner of the house and he tried to get your keys?”

“Yes.”

Police arriving on scene were radioed the description Shannon had given dispatch: ski mask, black T-shirt, dark pants.

Police say about an eighth of a mile away, a man matching that description and “walking at a fast pace” was located almost immediately near the storage building in the cemetery.

Officers said they chased the man through a wooded area behind the cemetery before briefly losing him. He was then detained after he was found laying sweat-covered in a ditch.

“At any point, on the morning, did you see anybody else in that cemetery?” Sorenson said.

“No, sir,” said Cpl. John Caddell of the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety.

Testimony is scheduled to resume today.

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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