An unarmed Air Force airman who was shot by a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy after a high-speed chase in 2006 testified today that he repeatedly tried to reassure the deputy that he meant no harm and was following the officer's commands when he was shot three times at close range.

 "I tell him . . . my friend did something stupid . . . we're on your side," said Elio Carrion, 23, who was a passenger in a speeding Corvette driven by a friend who had been drinking.

 Carrion testified that in the seconds before he was shot -- an incident caught on videotape by residents living across the street from where the Corvette crashed -- he told the officer he was in the "[expletive] military" and that the officer had "better believe" him.

 "The officer says, 'OK, get up, get up,' " said Carrion, who had just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq when the incident occurred. Carrion had gotten out of the car after the crash and was sprawled on the ground.

 He told jurors that he confirmed the officer's command by telling him that he was going to get up off the ground next to the Corvette. "As I get up, he shoots me."

 Prosecutors charged Ivory John Webb Jr., who has since left the Sheriff's Department, with attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm. He could face more than 18 years in prison.

Dist. Atty. Michael Ramos said last year that he and other prosecutors had listened to the tape several times and that all of them heard Webb order Carrion to get up twice before shooting him.