DULUTH – The prosecutor in the criminal trial of a police officer who shot an unarmed man through the door of his apartment told jurors on Tuesday afternoon that the officer had time to think before he repeatedly fired his gun — ultimately injuring the man on the other side.

"Tyler Leibfried made a choice," prosecutor Aaron Welch said in his opening statement at the St. Louis County Courthouse. "When he heard a man begging for his life, he shot again and again."

Leibfried's attorney, Paul Engh, said the officer was defending himself against what he believed to be the sound of gunshots.

"He thought he was about to be killed," Engh said. "He fired back. He kept firing to remove the threat. He had a right to defend himself."

Leibfried, 30, is facing several felony charges after shooting Jared Fyle who was on the other side of the closed door at the downtown Kingsley Heights Apartments on Sept. 12, 2020. Leibfried was responding to a report of a domestic argument and met Fyle's girlfriend when he got to the scene. She told Leibfried she was fine, according to court documents, but that she wanted help getting her belongings back from Fyle's apartment.

Leibfried and officer Cory Lindsholm made their way to apartment 301 and as they neared the door, Fyle — seemingly not knowing they were in the hallway — clicked the deadbolt and used a hatchet to further pound his door shut. Engh told jurors that it sounded like gunshots to the officer who had been on the scene of a 2019 standoff where a colleague was shot and a K-9 killed.

Both attorneys referenced body-cam footage, which for Welch will apparently show that Leibfried never identified himself to Fyle as a police officer, and for Engh should show the similarities between the sound of a gun and the sound of a hatchet hitting a door.

Leibfried is charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety and reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality. It's believed to be the first time the St. Louis County Attorney's office is pursuing charges against an officer for a shooting.

Jury selection started Tuesday morning and segued into opening statements in the mid-afternoon. The trial, presided over by Judge Sally Tarnowski, is expected to run through at least Friday.