One of two witnesses to appear before a grand jury in the murder case against former Columbus Police Vice Officer Andrew Mitchell says she fears for her life and doesn’t want to be seen on camera or identified by her last name. 

“I was getting menacing phone calls telling me if I was to say anything they was going to kill me,” said Kaitlin, who asked NBC4 to only identify her using only her first name.

She says it all started after seeing the final moments of 23-year-old Donna Castleberry’s life and calling 911 on Aug. 23, 2018. 

On that day, as Castleberry lay dying in the back of Mitchell’s unmarked police car in the parking lot of a West Columbus apartment, Kaitlin was on the second floor of that building.

She said boyfriend left to take out some trash and returned moments later, breathless. 

“He come running in the building. Boom, boom, boom, boom! Door flies open. He can’t breathe. I’m like, what’s wrong Randall? He’s like, there’s a cop. There’s a lady outside screaming for help, to help me, please. And I was like: ‘What’s going on?’ And she said a cop has her, that he’s pretending to be a cop but he kidnapped her. He’s trying to sell her or kill her,” she said. 

Kaitlin says she had no doubt about the unmistakable sound she heard next. 

“I come running outside. I hear gunshots before I hit the front door,” said Kaitlin. 

She also says she will never forget what she saw next. 

“I’m looking around the corner and I see Officer Mitchell stuffing her in half down in the back seat of the car, right? And then when he seen me he started stumbling to the floor and I look at him he’s got a gun down between his legs. He got a gun right between his legs,” she says. 

Kaitlin says Officer Mitchell’s words that followed were unbelievable. 

“He said, I got that bitch. So I’m looking around like four or five times. I looked in the car, I didn’t see anybody,” she says.  

She says Castleberry was unrecognizable.

“I didn’t recognize her because she was folded in half,” said Kaitlin. 

Kaitlin says it was clear Castleberry was dead, so she tended to Mitchell’s injuries. 

“I took my shirt off. I’m outside in my bra and a pair of pants and I wrapped his hand up,” she said. 

It was a selfless gesture. But now, Kaitlin says she feels helpless. 

“Nowhere does it stand that I’m safe.  I’m glad if me telling you this right now can be a way for y’all to keep this from happening to another female out here,” she said.