Background: The building on the 1400 block of Market Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the stabbing took place (WHP/YouTube). Inset: Dalaysia Terrell-Brown (Harrisburg Bureau of Police).
A teenage girl in Pennsylvania is accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death after apparently firing off warnings on social media showing her holding the blade.
Dalaysia Terrell-Brown, 17, stands charged with murder, as well as misdemeanor counts of possession of an instrument of crime with intent and use or possession of drug paraphernalia, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. She had a preliminary arraignment on Tuesday.
The victim was identified by area CBS affiliate WHP as 18-year-old Tamar Shaw.
On Monday, Terrell-Brown and Shaw were at a home on the 1400 block of Market Street in Harrisburg, the state capital of Pennsylvania. The two were in a relationship.
That night, the Harrisburg Bureau of Police was called to the residence. It was Terrell-Brown on the phone, and she told dispatchers that a man was “losing blood,” but she requested an ambulance and not police, regional NBC affiliate WGAL reported.
Officers are said to have arrived just before 11 p.m. to find Shaw sitting down while the defendant held a bloody white towel to his chest. He was brought to a local hospital, where he died.
When investigators spoke with Terrell-Brown, she reportedly told them that she and Shaw were in bed when he asked for a kitchen knife to cut papers to roll marijuana. According to authorities, she suggested that the knife may have been wrapped in blankets on the bed.
The defendant continued with her account of events, saying she was sitting on top of Shaw when “she went to move the blankets,” and he “yelled out in pain,” court documents state. When he went to see what happened and removed his shirt, “blood began spurting out of the wound.”
Terrell-Brown allegedly conceded that she and her boyfriend had argued earlier that day but that there was no such feud at the time of the incident.
Left and right: Videos reportedly posted to Instagram by Dalaysia Terrell-Brown show her allegedly threatening her boyfriend with a knife (WHP/YouTube).
When a Crime Stoppers tip came in, investigators had a whole new element to the case.
Terrell-Brown had allegedly posted videos the night before the incident showing her holding a knife and thrusting it in the direction of another person, ostensibly Shaw. The caption on the video reads in part, “cut that wrist up,” with laughing emojis.
Another video obtained by WHP contains the caption “let this be a warning” with a double exclamation point emoji.
An autopsy was conducted after Shaw died and ruled his death a homicide, finding that “The stab wound entered the chest cavity and this would require significant force,” per WGAL.
Terrell-Brown was arrested and booked into jail without bail. She is expected to return to court on April 20 for a preliminary hearing.
