BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Gregory Simmons said he was so concerned with protecting his daughters last Thanksgiving weekend that he didn’t see or feel the knife that slipped between his vertebrae and severed nerves.

He noticed only when his legs gave out beneath him.

Simmons, 44, was pushed in a wheelchair to the front of the witness stand so he could testify in the trial of sisters Layelle and Tommyrre Reid, two teens charged with attempted murder in the melee that left him paralyzed from the waist down.

“People just jumped on me, and minutes later I was on the ground and couldn’t feel my legs,” Simmons said. “I wanted to get up because people were all around me hitting me, but my legs weren’t listening.”

Simmons said he was in an upstairs bedroom watching cartoons with his two youngest sons the evening of Nov. 25 when he heard commotion at his front door.

Walking downstairs and looking out, he spotted several of his daughters arguing with more than 20 people, including 15-year-old Layelle, 16-year-old Tammyrre and their 17-year-old brother, Otis Huff, he said.

“I just started grabbing my girls and throwing them back into the house,” Simmons said.

As he did so, Huff – still wanted by police for his role in the attack – started beating him on the arms with a stick or two-by-four, and others were punching him in the face and body, Simmons said. He couldn’t see the other

attackers. But his wife, Sherrie, said the Reid sisters were hitting him until he was stabbed and

fell.

Two other girls, two of their mothers and two teen boys have also been charged for their roles in the attack.

Sherrie Simmons said she saw a teen, charged in the attack but not yet tried, stand behind him and jab him with what appeared to be a knife. But Simmons said he never saw or felt the wound that left him paralyzed.

The dispute apparently began between girls from each family, both romantically involved with 19-year-old Tykeem Bacon, said Simmons’ daughter Tiffany.

Dr. Matthew Lissauer, a surgeon at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, testified that Simmons would likely be partially paralyzed for life.

Simmons recalled working at a Rite Aid distribution center and a Wal-Mart.

“I used to work 100 hours a week, easily,” Simmons said. “Not anymore.”

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com