A Troy High School student admitted to killing her father Friday morning, and she says she did it to save her own life.Trinity Copeland, 17, is charged with second degree murder in the death of her father, Harlan Copeland, 47.
Police said Copeland was the one who called 911 and was in her Seventh Avenue home when they arrived at 4:30 a.m..
Officers took Copeland into custody, questioned her, and eventually got a two page written deposition in which Copeland admits to the murder.
Copeland didn't have much to say as Troy Police took her to the Rensselaer County Jail Friday afternoon.
“Ms. Copeland is charged with second degree murder, relative to death of Harlan Copeland,” said Troy Police Capt. John Cooney. “With gloves on and with a towel wrapped around the action of the weapon, she did in fact fire once at the victim and killed him by firing at his head.”
In a two-page voluntary statement, Copeland said she stole her father's ATM card and on Wednesday made two purchases amounting to more than $150.
Early Friday morning, Copeland said her father got his rifle as she tried to tell him what she had done.
“He told me that he was going to kill me. He was holding the gun and pointing it at me. My heart was pounding. He said after he killed me, that he was going to kill himself because he wasn't going to jail for me misbehaving,” Copeland wrote in the statement.
She said she then begged her father not to kill her and apologized profusely. Copeland wrote, "He said he was going to kill us both or I was going to have to kill him."
According to the statement, Copeland refused to kill her father, until eventually he said, “I'm going to kill you right now," and that's when she agreed to turning the gun on him.
"He said that either way he was going to die and he was giving me a way out. He laid back on the couch and I aimed at him. He said do it. I told him that I loved him and that I was sorry. Then I did it. I shot him,” Copeland wrote.
After pulling the trigger, Copeland said she ran to her upstairs neighbors.
Those neighbors didn't want to talk on camera, but said all Copeland told them was, "There's something wrong with my dad."
After hearing that, they called police.
Other neighbors, who also didn't want to talk on camera, told FOX23 News that Copeland and her father had an average relationship, and they never expected anything like this.
“It would never happen this way, the way that I am hearing, you just didn't see it,” said Sharon Wilson. “It’s sad, one word, sad, very sad.”
Trinity Copeland is in jail without bail, and the investigation is ongoing.
