On September 23, Maryland police responded to a 911 call and found a 13-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to her neck slumped at the bottom of the staircase in her Seat Pleasant home.
Her mother, 32-year-old Talecka Brown, blamed the shooting on a random homeless person, telling police that her daughter arrived home from school already bleeding, said court documents obtained by NBC4 Washington.
But that lie quickly unraveled during a police investigation, which turned up surveillance video of the teen happily walking home from school with her backpack. In the video, she even pulled in a trash can from the curb before entering the house.
During police questioning, a chilling scenario unfolded. Fighting for her life at the hospital, the teen told police that she and her mother got into an argument when she returned from school, and it quickly escalated and got physical. After the fight, the girl went to walk down the stairs when she heard a single gunshot and tumbled to the bottom, where she was unable to move.
In addition to the neck wound, there were also fragments found in her shoulder and abdomen. The child’s father reportedly told prosecutors that doctors feared she would be paralyzed, but that’s no longer a concern.
Brown instructed her daughter to tell police she was shot by a random assailant who broke into the house, said court documents.
Police, however, were immediately suspicious.
First responders noted the smell of a discharged firearm in the air, and Brown allegedly changed her story many times during questioning, eventually admitting that she was the only person home with her daughter when the shooting happened.
After a search warrant was issued, police recovered a loaded Glock from the home that night, reported Fox 5 DC.
Brown was arrested and charged with first-degree attempted murder and was denied bond on Sept. 25. During the bond hearing, her attorney, citing Brown’s lack of violent criminal history, argued that she should be given home detention because her 13-year-old could stay elsewhere with her father when she’s released from the hospital.
Ashley Sowls, Assistant State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County, said after the hearing that Brown’s request for home detention was “concerning to the state,” adding that “obviously, with her being 13 years old, she’s very impressionable and that’s our concern. It’s her mother. She’s going to listen to her mother. We don’t want her to be tainted in any way by the pressure.”
Before the bond hearing, Brown spoke with the father from jail, Sowls said in court, as Fox 5 reported. She allegedly told him that if their daughter didn’t make a statement or appear in court, “this would go away.” She also reportedly left a voicemail for the father to deny culpability, saying, “Come on, that’s not me.”
Brown earned no sympathy as the story made headlines across social media channels. A news package produced by Fox 5 Washington DC had nearly one thousand comments mostly condemning Brown.
“Mother is psycho. Protect the child,” wrote on commentor.
Another added a more robust take, “As a parent of 5 I’ve never thought of shooting or trying to kill my child. I’m not standing up arguing, tussling or fighting with nobody I’ve birth my kids already know to shut up and listen. I’ll look like a fool standing up going back and forth with a 13 year old for one.
So the parent needs to reevaluate her parenting skills a child of yours should never be able to make you that upset that u try to kill them then u tell them to lie to the police. No stand up and take your d*mn charge that made her look even more lame getting that young girl to lie to the police. If u were big and bad to shoot her then u need to be that big and bad to take the charge.”
Another commentor hoped the mom rot in jail, “When she heals, she can live with her father and never have to be near the person who tried to kill her. A young child who automatically brings the garbage can back from the curb is not a bad child like the so called mother has said. Sounds like the mother is jealous of her own child! The mother is a POS and needs to be in prison for a very long time!”
The girl is now recovering at the hospital and in stable condition, though she’ll need additional surgery when she becomes more stable, said the news outlet. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for October.
Acting Police Chief Cedric Heyward issued a statement after the arrest, “It is always tragic when we have acts of violence in our community, but it is heart wrenching when the perpetrator is supposed to be your protector.”
