A 17-year-old girl was accused Friday of fatally shooting her father, which she said was at his request.
Trinity Copeland allegedly shot her father, 47-year-old Harland Copeland, around 4:30 a.m. in their home at 3022 Seventh Ave. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to city police Capt. John Cooney.
According to her statement to police:
Her father was upset that she had used his ATM card without his permission at a corner store to make separate purchases totaling $122 and $32.
Her father noticed the transactions and got the paperwork from the bank to make a police report about the incident. He was also going to watch security camera footage from the store.
Around 3:40 a.m., she confessed to him that she had taken the card. Her father, who had been drinking earlier in the day, became upset and went upstairs to get a gun.
“Basically, he was telling me that he was so angry with me, that I was a liar and a sneak and I never tell him anything anymore.”
Then her father pointed the gun at her.
“He said that after he killed me, that he was going to kill himself because he wasn’t going to jail for me misbehaving. I was like, ‘Dad, you don’t have to do this. I will stay on punishment.’ He said that he does not want to hear it. He said that he was going to kill us both or I was going to have to kill him.”
She pleaded that she did not want to do it, but he insisted and told her what to say to cover it up.
“He said that either way, he was going to die and he was giving me a way out.”
She then aimed the gun at him.
“I told him that I loved him and that I was sorry. Then, I did it. I shot him.”
She was wearing gloves so there would be no fingerprints. She then grabbed her father’s phone and called 911.
Trinity Copeland was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge and sent to the Rensselaer County jail without bail.
Categories: Schenectady County
