A Massachusetts teenager was shot and killed hours before her middle school graduation, and her ex-boyfriend has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Ahliana Dickey, 15, was found dead of gunshot wounds in the first-floor bedroom of her Lowell home on Friday evening, June 14, the Middlesex County District Attorney's office said.
Officials explained that Dickey was scheduled to attend her middle school graduation later that day.
When she didn't show up, her family got worried and went home to look for her.
The district attorney explained that the teenager's grandmother called police to report her tragic discovery around 6:10 p.m.
When police responded to the scene, they learned that Dickey was abusing an elderly man, later identified as 21-year-old Trevor Biddy.
Shortly after midnight Friday, Lowell authorities received a call from a neighbor of Ahliana, who reported that a man and a woman were fighting loudly in the street, the official statement said.
The caller claimed the woman could be heard screaming “get away from me, get away from me, I don't want to be with you anymore” before gunshots rang out.
“Police responded to the scene but the parties could not be located,” the official statement explained.
The statement added that surveillance video obtained from the scene showed Dickey screaming for help shortly before midnight, and a male suspect exiting his home at the same time.
The day after the murder, the police discovered that Badi had taken an Uber from Dickey's house before and after the shooting. One of the Uber drivers was interviewed, and identified his passenger as Badi.
Badi was arrested in Peabody on Monday, June 17, without incident.
He pleaded not guilty in Lowell District Court on Tuesday, June 18, to murder, armed home invasion, illegal possession of a firearm and other charges and is being held without bail.
According to CBS News, prosecutors said in court that two days before Dickey's murder, the teenager allegedly told someone Badi had threatened to kill him and his grandmother.
Trevor Biddy will appear in court again on July 30.
“My worst fear has come true,” Dickey's father, Scott Dickey, wrote on Facebook on Monday.