DERICA PATTERSON - 16 yo - Memphis TN

Mom of murdered teen has harsh words for suspects

Dec 28, 2011 10:45 AM EST

By Lindsey Brown

Derica Patterson, photo courtesy victim's family.




Corey Albright, left, and Rico R. Fleming are wanted in connection to a shooting that killed a 16-year-old girl dead.

MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) – The mother of 16-year-old Derica Patterson regrets her decision to let her son and daughter attend a party the night her daughter was killed in a drive-by shooting. As for the two men wanted in the shooting, the mother has harsh words for them.

Carol Dye said her daughter was on the way back from a party in Jackson, MS, when she was shot to death. Several other people were in the car, but only Derica was killed.

Her mother said she didn't know the party was hours away.

"I've never been to Jackson myself; you think I would have let my little girl go? Oh no, she most definitely wouldn't have went," Dye said.

The mother wants to see the two men who are wanted for the shooting caught. They are 22-year-old Rico Fleming of Moscow, TN, and 31-year-old Cory Albright, of Rossville, TN. They each face one count of murder and five counts of drive-by shooting.

"If you were man enough to shoot into that car and kill my daughter you should be man enough to do your time," she said. "I don't have pity or nothing for you because you didn't have any for my child."

Dye said her children were involved in some sort of argument with the suspects during the party and that's why they left, but said they ran into them again at a gas station.

Her daughter was shot shortly after.

"If they do get you, I'm going for the death penalty… because you took my baby's life," Dye said. "I don't want to see you spend a day in jail."

Investigators say the suspects are known gang members and that a person in the victim's car may also have gang connections, though Carol Dye said her children aren't involved with gangs.

http://www.wmctv.com/story/16402076/mom-of-murdered-teen-has-harsh-words-for-suspects