Brawl transpires outside courtroom for hearing of 4-year-old girl killed
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) -A brawl inside the hallways of the Davidson County Courthouse broke out Thursday afternoon during a hearing for the three men accused of shooting and killing four-year-old Taliyah Frazier.
Frazier was in the backseat of a car on Dickerson Pike when she was shot and killed over a month ago.
Thursday was the first day Frazier’s family saw the four men charged in her murder.
Lemarian Buchanan, Trey Dennis, Kenlando Lewis, and Keimari Johnson all appeared before Judge Marcus Floyd Thursday afternoon.
It was also the first time Frazier’s mom’s boyfriend, Dandre Pruitt, testified. He was driving the black Chevy Malibu Frazier and Pruitt’s two-year-old twin boys were in. Pruitt said he picked up pills from a friend and was on his way to the Family Dollar on Dickerson Pike where his girlfriend, Taliyah’s mother, works.
When he got to the intersection of Douglas Ave. and Dickerson Pk. and stopped at the red light when shots were fired from behind. Pruitt said he had no idea where the shots were coming from, but one hit Frazier in the back of her head.
“Car started to get shot up and I tried to pull my kids down,” he said. “And I was trying to drive at the same time.”
Metro Nashville Police Detective, Timothy Skopek, testified he interviewed some of the defendants and watched video footage of all four men who were in the car behind Pruitt.
Skopek said Dennis was the driver of the car and Buchanan admitted he was one of the ones who fired shots at Pruitt’s Malibu from the back passenger seat of the car he was in. He admitted in the interview he didn’t know who was in front of him.
“He thought it was someone else,” he said. “He didn’t know it was Pruitt.”
Pruitt testified he didn’t know the defendants, except Dennis who he went to school with years ago. He said he never had any hostile interactions with any of them.
The case will now to the grand jury and a trial date will be set.
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