Witness Describes Slayings : Courts: He says doorman killed two patrons outside Hollywood nightclub, and that shootings were unprovoked. Defense attacks his credibility.

Neither of two men who were shot to death outside a popular Hollywood nightspot did anything to provoke the incident, and one--already mortally wounded--pleaded futilely with the gunman to stop firing, a witness at a court hearing said Thursday.

The witness, Andre Murphy, said a man burst out of the Blak and Bloo nightclub on Sunset Boulevard in the early hours of Nov. 30, shouted something and opened fire on Adrian Thames of Inglewood and Eric Pierce of Los Angeles as the two walked near the business.

“I heard Adrian say: ‘No No. Please, we’re not involved. Don’t shoot,’ ” Murphy testified in a hushed courtroom in downtown Los Angeles.

The response, Murphy said, was: “Bang. Bang. Bang.”

Murphy, who was with Thames and Pierce and escaped injury by ducking into the alcove of a storefront, was the first person to publicly give an account of the slayings outside the club.

The shootings have provoked charges of anti-black bias at the club, picketing by community activists and a renewal of complaints by neighbors that the club, once a haunt of some of Hollywood’s hip and famous, is a longtime nuisance and should be closed. The club has denied any discrimination or other serious problems.

Murphy’s testimony came during a pretrial hearing for Roman Paul Luisi, 23, a white Blak and Bloo doorman who has been charged with murder in the deaths of Thames and Pierce, both of whom were black. The hearing, scheduled to continue today, is to determine whether Luisi will stand trial.

Murphy identified Luisi as the gunman to police and in the courtroom Thursday. But during cross-examination by the defendant’s lawyer, Anthony Brooklier, Murphy acknowledged that he had originally put the blame on another Blak and Bloo employee.

The first suspect was identified by Murphy immediately after the shooting as blond with shoulder-length hair. Luisi has dark, short hair and was not arrested until two days later.

Brooklier hammered on the earlier identification, but Murphy would not budge from saying that Luisi had been the gunman. He said he could not explain why he mistook dark hair for blond. He said he may have mistaken the collar of the gunman’s coat for a ponytail.

Testimony from other witnesses revealed that Pierce, but not Thames, had been involved in an argument with Luisi and other Blak and Bloo employees at the door of the club an hour before the shooting. Pierce and two companions were ejected over their alleged refusal to pay a $5 cover charge.

Murphy said he and Thames knew Pierce but did not come to the club with him and had no problem getting in. It was after they left the club, he said, that he and Thames ran into Pierce and his companions. Pierce was headed to a convenience store for coffee, and Murphy said he and Thames were headed toward their car when the shooting occurred.

Another witness, Conrad Lumas, who was forced to leave the Blak and Bloo with Pierce, testified that during the altercation Luisi briefly put Pierce in a headlock.

Outside the courtroom, Lumas, who is white, said he could not say with certainty that the shooting was racially motivated.