DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Emotions overflowed in a DeKalb County courtroom Thursday when a teenager tried to attack the man police say killed her father.
Tevin Merriweather is accused of gunning down Myron Pierce at a gas station along Glenwood Avenue earlier this month. Merriweather’s attorney says the shooting was done in self-defense.
As a prosecutor laid out how he said Merriweather shot Pierce several times, the victim’s daughter couldn’t hold back her emotions.
“Why’d you kill my daddy,” Pierces daughter Tashiya Campbell, 15, yelled from her seat as she stood up in the courtroom.
Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes was inside the courtroom and watched as Campbell pushed her way through several of her relatives and then tried to lunge at Merriweather.
Deputies were able to stop Campbell before she could reach Merriweather and removed her from the courtroom.
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Family members said the details of the shooting were hard to hear.
“It was like he was hunted down like an animal,” Pierce’s cousin Tyesha Barsh told Fernandes. “He has no respect for human life."
The prosecutor said Merriweather had scammed Pierce before and when Pierce ran into Merriweather at a gas station on June 2, Pierce started punching him.
“He was beating the crap out of my client,” Merriweather’s attorney said.
Police said Merriweather grabbed his gun and shot Pierce about 15 times and even started chasing him when Pierce started to run.
“I'm not a supporter of capital punishment, but he needs life in prison without the possibility of parole,” Barsh said.
Merriweather’s attorney said the shooting was in self-defense.
After the hearing, Fernandes spoke with Campbell, who talked about how she'll miss her father.
“He was very understanding. You know how you can go to your friends and talk about stuff you can’t tell your parents? But it was him I could go to and talk about stuff. He was very understanding and real with me,” Campbell said.
Merriweather continues to be held without bond in the DeKalb County Jail.