By Katrease Stafford Gannett Michigan

Howell resident Amy Flemming cradled her husband as he lay dying on the pavement from a bullet wound to his face, begging him to stay alive and to fight for his life even though she knew it was already too late.

"I screamed at him, 'Don't leave, don't leave. I love you. I need you, the kids need you,' " Amy Flemming recalled Tuesday during an interview with the Detroit Free Press. "But I think that in my heart I knew he was gone. As soon as I saw him ... The way that he crumpled."

As she screamed for help, Flemming says, she glanced up at Martin Edward Zale, the Marion Township man who is charged in the shooting of her 43-year-old husband, Derek, in a road-rage incident. She said she was stunned to see a blank, emotionless face looking back at her from the pickup.

"He was just sitting in his truck, and when I was kneeling on the ground with my husband who was profusely bleeding, I looked at Mr. Zale and he had his head turned and was just watching," she said. "He had the same look that he did in the photos they have of him upon his arrest, that very expressionless look. That's the look that he had. It wasn't anger, it wasn't shock. He didn't seem like he was remorseful or anything."

Moments earlier, Flemming said, she had watched as her husband got out of their Ford Escape at a traffic light on Grand River Avenue in Genoa Township to confront another motorist who had nearly hit their SUV with his pickup. She said he walked up and asked the other driver: "What's your problem?"

"And it was a second or maybe two after Derek said that to when there was a gunshot," Flemming said. "As soon as I heard the gunshot and I saw him fall, I was getting out of the car and running to him."

She said it's painful for her to recount the events of Sept. 2, which cost her husband his life and left the 69-year-old Zale jailed without bond on a charge of open murder.

The couple had just gone out for lunch and were on their way to pick up their two children from the first day of school. She said they were traveling on Grand River Avenue when they saw a pickup speed up to a stop sign from a side road.

"He came very quickly up to the stop sign, and we didn't think he was going to stop," Flemming said. "We thought he was going to hit us. He came way past where the stop sign was. When we drove by, he pulled right behind us. I looked in my side mirror and I couldn't see his lights, I couldn't see the bumper because he was that close."

She said the pickup began to tailgate their vehicle and the situation continued to escalate.

"It was like he was toying with us," she said. "He got in front of us, slowed way down, accelerated and slammed on the brakes."

After her husband was shot, Flemming said, witnesses rushed to her aid and called 911.

"One woman in particular that was next to our vehicle, she asked me what happened and I told her to call 911," she said. "I was trying to call 911 and I couldn't even figure out how to unlock my phone. She said, 'What happened?' and pointed at Mr. Zale, and I said, 'He shot my husband.' "

Amy Flemming said that Zale had pulled his pickup over onto a side street and witnesses screamed for someone to get his license-plate number, just in case he attempted to leave the scene.

"People started to say, 'Did anyone get a plate number?' " she said. "I was too concerned with Derek and I don't know if he pulled over and waited on his own or if people blocked him and stopped him. I didn't say a word to him, and he didn't say a word to me."

In addition to the murder charge, Zale is charged with discharging a pistol from a vehicle and two counts of possessing a pistol in the commission of the murder and the firing of the pistol. He appeared at a hearing Tuesday that was adjourned until Oct. 7.

Zale's attorney, Melissa Pearce, said at a news conference Tuesday that she will argue self-defense when the case goes to trial. She declined to release details on why she believes self-defense is appropriate, but said "the whole story has not been heard."

Flemming said she believes at no point during the confrontation was her husband aggressive toward Zale. She said Zale's lawyer "has a client she has to represent and she's doing her best to represent him."

"They found his wallet in his back pocket and his phone was in the side pocket of his shorts," she said of her husband. "He didn't have a pen, he didn't have anything in his hand. I don't know why he was perceived to be such a large threat. Mr. Zale, he could have left his window rolled up ... Instead he decided to shoot first."

Her lawyer, William Moore, said at some point the family might consider a civil suit against Zale, but that has yet to be decided.

Flemming said her two children — Julian, 8, and Lily, who turned 6 two days after her father was killed — are struggling with their father's death.

"My son, who's 8, said to me, 'The man that shot daddy, is he in prison?' " she said. "Both of them asked if they could go to the trial, which I told them no. I think they understand a lot more than people would think. They've asked a lot of hard questions and deserve to have their questions answered."

Her husband owned a small landscaping business and was the sole provider for the family.

Flemming said she will always remember her husband as a vibrant, energetic person who cared deeply for his family.

"He sent me text messages every day telling me how much he loved me," she said. "He told them every day how much he loved them. He would remind us every day, 'You guys are my best friends.' He loved life, and I think he lived it to the fullest."

Flemming said she harbors no ill will toward Zale's family, who she thinks is also grieving in their own way.

"His family didn't make the choice for him; that was his choice and I feel sad for them because this has forever changed their lives, just like it's forever changed our lives," she said. "His family lost him just like our family lost Derek."

Daily Press & Argus reporter Lisa Roose-Church contributed to this report.