Terra Dudley knew her son was in trouble but hesitated when she pulled out a gun to defend him as he fled from a barrage of bullets.

She then fired at the teenage boy who had taken aim at her 17-year-old son, James Sanders.

“My heart broke. I had just a moment to react. I wanted to shoot him. But I knew, if I shot, I could hit my son, so I just watched him shoot my son,” Dudley testified Wednesday.

Her testimony came on the first day of a trial for the man police said initiated the violent altercation nearly four years ago in Jeannette.

Prosecutors say Brandon Ingram ordered his younger brother to fire at Dudley’s son following a street fight.

Ingram, 27, of Jeannette is charged with solicitation to commit murder, aggravated assault and other related counts.

It all stems from the April 7, 2021, shooting on Lowry Avenue in which two teenage boys were wounded.

Prosecutors say Ingram ordered his 16-year-old brother, Dasean, to shoot the man who had just beaten him in a fight. Police said Dasean Ingram fired at least three shots at his brother’s urging.

Sanders, now 21, was wounded in the hand during the shootout.

“The defendant intended for his brother to commit murder and aggravated assault and shoot at Mr. Sanders,” Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro told jurors at the start of the trial. “That statement came after he lost a fight. It’s like a stone in the pond that started the ripples.”

Witnesses testified Wednesday the Ingram brothers came to the Lowry Avenue home to confront Sanders’ brother about claims of bullying at Jeannette High School but initially were turned away. They returned about an hour later — armed — and with a group of other boys and men, Dudley and her son told jurors.

Sanders, an amateur boxer, said, at his mother’s urging, he engaged Brandon Ingram in a fight outside the home.

“My mother told me to go out and fight to defend the house. He threw the first punch, and I beat him up,” Sanders testified.

He said he pinned Brandon Ingram on his back and, after asking if he wanted to end the fight, Ingram made eye contact with his brother.

“He told Dasean to shoot me,” Sanders told jurors.

Dudley said she watched the fight, saw Dasean Ingram fire multiple rounds and her son flee before she fired at and wounded the younger Ingram. Dasean Ingram was shot in his thigh. He was later charged as an adult with attempted murder and other offenses.

Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger last year transferred the now-20-year-0ld Dasean Ingram’s prosecution to juvenile court, where the case has since been disposed.

Neither Sanders nor Dudley were charged in connection with the fight and shooting. Prosecutors ruled Dudley’s actions were justified and were undertaken in self-defense.

Defense attorney Valerie Veltri told jurors Brandon Ingram, like Sanders and his mother, should not have been charged with crimes. She said Ingram’s call for his brother to shoot was not a serious request.

“I think the prosecution is desperate,” Veltri said. “Brandon Ingram had no gun, no weapon and he was not the shooter.”

The trial is expected to continue Thursday.

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