A 17-year-old accused of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Kaleb McCall told a jury Thursday that he’d been tormented by McCall’s friends for months and feared for his safety on Sept. 7, 2023, but didn’t know McCall himself before he stabbed him with a pocket knife.

Hamza Khatatbeh was a sophomore at Sycamore High School at the time. He had turned 15 about a month before the Sept. 7, 2023, stabbing. He took the witness stand in his defense during Day 2 of his murder trial. He’s charged as an adult.

“I was scared,” Khatatbeh, now 17, said when asked how he felt leading up to the stabbing.

Khatatbeh told the jury he’d carried a pocket knife with him all day that Thursday. He said it was in his backpack while he was at school.

After school, he met two girls at Culver’s, then walked with them toward downtown Sycamore, intending to walk home. But a white car carrying four other teenagers - including McCall – had driven by Khatatbeh and the girls. Khatatbeh said they yelled racial and homophobic slurs at him, and he responded with an expletive directed back at them. He had no plans to meet up with them in a parking lot, he said.

When asked why he was scared, Khatatbeh said a boy inside the car – who testified Wednesday and said he was McCall’s best friend – “had been tormenting me for months.”

But he’d never met McCall, he said.

In a bank surveillance video that captured the stabbing, the white car is seen driving through the parking lot and out of view. Khatatbeh then comes into the frame walking along the sidewalk. But he slows down and enters the parking lot as the white car returns into the frame, driving the other way toward Khatatbeh.

McCall and his friend, whom Khatatbeh said he was afraid of, exit the white car in a parking lot outside Old National Bank at Elm and Maple streets. As the two boys approach him, Khatatbeh also walks toward them.

“Who the [expletive] is this [expletive],” Khatatbeh said he asked about McCall as the boys approached him, recounting the stabbing.

He was asked by both lawyers Thursday why he left the sidewalk and turned toward the approaching car.

“I was worried for my safety and the people with me,” Khatatbeh said.

As the boys approach him, Khatatbeh starts walking toward them, according to the video. He appears to run his hands along his hips and then gestures with his left hand, pointing at the boys.

He told special prosecutor Derek Dion during cross examination that he had the pocket knife in his hand at that point. He said he showed it to McCall and McCall’s friend.

McCall appears to attempt to strike Khatatbeh’s face with his right hand. Then Khatatbeh stabs McCall in the right side of his chest with his left hand. McCall’s friend didn’t make contact with Khatatbeh.

“When did you decide to stab Kaleb?” Dion asked.

“I didn’t decide,” Khatatbeh said. When pressed again by the prosecution, Khatatbeh said, “When he put his hands up to punch me.”

The teenager’s defense attorney, Brandon Brown, asked why he decided to use the knife.

“Because they were coming after me,” Khatatbeh said.

“Were you defending yourself?” Brown asked.

“Yes,” Khatatbeh said.

Khatatbeh’s defense has spent the trial attempting to build a self-defense argument for their client. Brown has alleged that Khatabteh was targeted by a group of older students who instigated the violence.

Witnesses from both teenage groups suggested to the jury on Wednesday that they didn’t have any significant connection to each other, some saying they didn’t know McCall or Khatatbeh at all.

But the prosecution has argued that there was “mutual animosity” between Khatatbeh’s group and the teenagers in the car.

“Kaleb’s friends did not like the defendant and the defendant did not like Kaleb’s friends,” Dion said during his opening statements Wednesday.

Khatatbeh is charged with first-degree murder in McCall’s death. McCall, in his senior year with Sycamore School District 427, died from a single stab wound to the chest, authorities have said.

Khatatbeh also is charged with aggravated battery and armed violence. Though he’s a minor, he’s charged as an adult, which means that if he’s convicted he could face at least 20 years in prison.

In addition to Khatatbeh, the defense called two witnesses Thursday morning and then rested their case.

Shaw Local is not identifying the witnesses, who were minors at the time of the stabbing.

Shaw Local has identified Khatatbeh publicly since he is charged as an adult, and the case documents are unsealed. A judge also granted Shaw Local permission to cover the trial and proceedings.

Loved ones remembered Kaleb as endeared by his friends, biking and skateboarding with them around town. Kaleb loved bonfires, fishing and was enjoying his final year before adulthood. McCall worked at the Sycamore Culver’s with his grandmother. That location later hosted a memorial fundraiser to support his family.

Dion is expected to offer rebuttal arguments Thursday afternoon. Closing statements could come after, and deliberations would follow.

This story will be updated.