Connellsville teen held for court in fatal shooting
Witnesses at Braedon Dickinson’s preliminary hearing Friday placed he and Lemaur Thompson together less than an hour before Thompson was fatally shot in Uniontown last month.
Dickinson, 18, of Connellsville, was held for court on all charges connected to the shooting.
Police responded around 5 p.m. Feb. 5 to Dunlap Street in Uniontown where Thompson, 20, was found lying in the middle of the street.
State police showed several angles of surveillance footage from the shooting, where figures matching the outfits people remembered Dickinson and Thompson wearing were walking down the street before a loud bang, Thompson falling to the ground and Dickinson running off.
Tahneyjah Perez of Uniontown, Thompson’s girlfriend, remembered he and Dickinson leaving for the store around 4:15 or 4:20 p.m. She recalled Thompson giving a green-and-black jacket to Dickinson.
The same jacket appeared on the man identified as Dickinson in the surveillance footage shown by police.
A relative of Dickinson’s who lived nearby, Kamari Thomas of Uniontown, said he had run to her house afterward. She recalled Dickinson saying “I shot him.”
She testified he changed clothes before leaving, putting on a black hoodie.
Dickinson was arrested a week later in Baltimore, Md.
Fayette County Coroner Bob Baker testified first responders had performed CPR on Thompson for 30 minutes at the scene and another 15 minutes at the hospital before he was pronounced dead.
Asked if a motive had been established for the shooting, Attorney Mike Aubele said it remained an active investigation.
“The most important thing is we have sufficient evidence we showed today that they were together, that he was wearing clothing consistent with what he was seen with earlier that day, as well as on the surveillance from him running away from the scene, as well as committing the offense,” he said. “And you can very clearly hear in two of the surveillance videos that we’ve provided automatic fire.”
Dickinson faces charges of criminal homicide, robbery inflicting serious bodily injury, possession of a prohibited firearm and recklessly endangering another person.
This is the second homicide charge Dickinson has faced. When he was 14, he was one of seven people charged with killing 39-year-old Jason Raiford in New Kensington in July 2022. Dickinson was prosecuted as a juvenile in that case.