During witness testimony Monday at the trial of Ahmed Abu Khattala, who’s suspected of being the mastermind behind the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, diplomatic security agent Scott Wickland revealed what Ambassador Chris Stevens’s last words were.
In his harrowing account of the attack on the consulate, which Cortney detailed earlier this week, Wickland recalled the chaos of the situation during his efforts to help save Stevens and information management officer Sean Patrick Smith.
"I was breathing through the last centimeter of air on the ground," he said. "I'm yelling, 'Come on. We can make it. We're going to the bathroom.' Within 8 meters, they disappeared."
He said he completely lost track of them even though they were all together.
"To this day, I don't even know where they went. I was right next to them, and then that's it," Wickland said. "I had my hand on Ambassador Stevens. I could hear Sean shuffling."
Wickland also told jurors what Stevens’s brave last words to him were: “When I die, you need to pick up my gun and keep fighting," the DailyMail reports.
Khattala faces an 18-count indictment. Assistant U.S. attorney John Crabb argued the defendant “hates America with a vengeance” and this “hatred simmered until it boiled over.”
His defense is saying Khattala was an innocent bystander in the Sept. 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate, which killed four Americans, including Stevens, Smith, and security officers Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.