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Girls Were Needed "To Fight Whatever Girls We See"
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 5, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 5, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Yesterday, one of the teenagers that mugged and terrorized people on a January 2005 night testfied that Rudy Fleming did not shoot Nicole duFresne by accident. Tatiana McDonald, who was 14 during the fatal mugging (she's now 16), told the court that the group of teens were bored after smoking marijuana and playing video games, so they decided "to start trouble."
After trying to mug a man of his leather jacket and being scared away from another man who seemed to have a gun, the pack of teens were walking in the Lower East Side when they saw duFresne, her fiancee Jeffrey Sparks and two friends. McDonald said Fleming wanted to "bang on these people right here" and confronted them by grabbing duFresne's purse and hitting Sparks with a gun. From the NY Times:
“What are you going to do, you going to shoot us? Is that what you wanted?” Ms. duFresne demanded, according to Tatiana McDonald, one of the muggers, who testified yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
As Ms. duFresne shouted those words, she walked up to Rudy Fleming, whom Miss McDonald described as the 19-year-old leader of the pack, and looked him in the eye, Miss McDonald said. Mr. Fleming reacted by pushing Ms. duFresne in the chest with his left hand.
Ms. duFresne stumbled backward, then bounced back and shouted her question again: “What are you going to do, shoot us?”
Mr. Fleming pushed Ms. duFresne a second time, and when she came at him again, he lifted his right arm and fired one bullet, Miss McDonald said.
“He was so mad, he just lift up the gun and shot at her,” Miss McDonald said. “After I saw her grab her chest, I just ran.”
McDonald, who admitted to going through duFresne's purse, maintained that Fleming did not slip and was not pushed by duFresne (Fleming's defense is that he shot duFresne by accident). She also testified that the guys wanted her and Fleming's girlfriend “to fight whatever girls we see." Fleming's lawyer tried to paint McDonald as someone who did have a major role in the crimes.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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