FORT LAUDERDALE — It was over a dog.

Seibert Prescott, 63, and his son Roger Bennett, 30, were fatally shot in the back last year after an argument over a pit bull named Tiger, prosecutor Sasha Shulman told a Broward jury Wednesday morning.

Vincent Jones, 49, is charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder stemming from the March 25, 2014, incident in Fort Lauderdale.

A third intended target, Bennett's brother Steven, was not struck by a bullet.

The prosecutor said Jones wasn't even part of the argument about Tiger. The dog's owner, John Forbes, had been living with Prescott for some time but got back on his feet and moved out of Prescott's home in Fort Lauderdale's Sistrunk neighborhood. But he left Tiger behind.

On the morning of the shooting, Forbes returned to the house looking for Tiger.

During an argument about where the dog was, Forbes threatened to kill Prescott with a machete and scatter his body in the Everglades. Tiger showed up moments later, and Forbes left with him.

Later, Prescott and his sons found Forbes playing dominoes in Lincoln Park. Shulman said Steven Bennett, who was unarmed, threatened to shoot Forbes.

Forbes' nephew, Gerrard Bell, called Jones, who arrived while the argument continued.

Steven Bennett testified Wednesday that Bell pulled a gun out of his car and handed it to Jones.

"I screamed, gun!" he said. "Me, my dad and my brother begin to run. Jones has the gun in his hand. He's squeezing and we're running."

He said he heard six shots.

As he fled, he saw his father collapse, fatally wounded.

Moment later, he saw that his brother had also been wounded. "I'm all right," he recalled his brother saying.

The father and son died near Ray's Meat Market on the 1700 block of Northeast Sixth Street. Surveillance footage from the store will be played during the trial.

Bell pleaded no contest to murder and attempted murder charges in February and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Defense lawyer Joe Pappacoda said Jones was acting in self-defense. Steven Bennett had threatened to shoot Forbes to death, and Jones had reason to believe he intended to make good on that threat by going for his gun.

Steven Bennett testified that he never threatened Forbes. He said he asked how Forbes would feel if he were to threaten him the way Forbes threatened his father.

Jones had no way of knowing that the men arguing with Forbes didn't have a weapon, Pappacoda said.

"This is a justifiable use of deadly force," he said. "Vincent Jones believed that force was necessary to stop an imminent deadly attack."

The trial is expected to last through early next week.

rolmeda@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4457, Twitter @SSCourts and @rolmeda