OAKLAND (BCN) — A teenager who once was a suspect in the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Hadari Askari outside a housing complex in East Oakland in July 2012 testified Wednesday that two other youths are the ones responsible for Hadari’s death.

Taking the witness stand in the preliminary hearing for Reggie Thomas and Rodney Rederford on charges that they murdered Hadari in the 6700 block of Leona Creek Drive just after 8 p.m. on July 10, 2012, the18-year-old said he’s not sure who shot Hadari but he said Thomas and Rederford had been “tussling” with Hadari and were with him when he was shot.

The shooting death of Hadari, who had aspired to be a firefighter and was in a summer work program with the Oakland Fire Department at the time of his death, had gone unsolved for more than two and a half years before Thomas and Rederford, who now are both 20, were charged in March.

Alameda County prosecutor Glenn Kim said at two trials last year that an attempt at revenge for Hadari’s shooting death led to the shooting death of 15-year-old Jubrille Jordan in the 6600 block of Lion Way, near the Lion Creek Crossings apartment complex, five months later at about 3:40 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2012.

Kim said Lilron Jones, now 19, Vijay Bhushan, now 22, and Marquise Thomas, now 25, were friends of Hadari and were seeking to kill the 18-year-old youth, who was 14 at the time, because they thought he was the one who had killed Hadari.

Kim said one of the 20 bullets that were fired in the December 2012 incident struck and killed Jubrille, who he said was an innocent bystander who just happened to be near the then-14-year-old boy and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The youth who’s now 18 was wounded in the December 2012 shooting but survived. Prosecutors asked that his name not be disclosed.

Jones and Bhushan were convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder for that shooting last March 2 and Marquise Thomas’ was convicted of identical charges in a separate trial on June 1.

Last July 10, Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay sentenced Jones to 120 years to life in state prison, Bhushan to 34 years to life and Thompson to 32 years to life.

Oakland police Officer Jason Andersen testified that the 18-year-old told him in an interview last March that Thomas and Rederford got into an altercation with Hadari the night of July 10, 2012, and “were jumping on him.”

Andersen said the 18-year-old told him that he saw Rederford extend his hand out with a gun and then heard three to five gun shots so he began running away from the scene.

Andersen said that at the beginning of his investigation he considered the 18-year-old to be a suspect in Hadari’s shooting death but he no longer considers him to be one.

Asked by Rederford’s lawyer, Brian Hong, if police had “forced” him to name Thomas and Rederford as the suspects in the shooting, the 18-year-old said, “In a way. They wanted you to say who it was.”

But under questioning by prosecutor Autrey James, the 18-year-old said he was the one who first mentioned Thomas and Rederford when he was interviewed by police.

The 18-year-old said there was a lot of talk on the street that he was the one who had killed Hadari and “that was scary to me.”

He said that after he was shot in December 2012, “I was afraid that someone would finish off the job, that someone could come kill me.”

The preliminary hearing for Thomas and Rederford, which will determine if there’s enough evidence for them to stand trial, is expected to conclude Thursday morning.

In addition to murder, Thomas and Rederford are both accused of intentionally discharging a firearm causing death, which could significantly increase their prison terms if they’re convicted of murdering Hadari.Bay City News contributed to this report