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New Jersey Teen Girl Charged For The Murder of 13-Year-Old Nathaniel Plummer Jr., Who Was Gunned Down While Walking To His Grandmother’s House

By Angelica N. Sumter
Published on: 21:40 PST, Jan 28, 2016

Police say a 17-year-old girl, whose name has been withheld, was charged in the shooting death of Nathaniel Plummer Jr., 13, of Camden, New Jersey, who was found in a pool of blood laying on a sidewalk, according to CBS News. At approximately 11:15 p.m. on January 7, Plummer was walking to his grandmother’s house on the 2900 Block of Line Street to retrieve his phone and clothes, but hr never made, it as he was reportedly shot dead by a teen girl, who officials say was his friend.

The teen’s mother, Taisha Mercado, who is a certified medical assistant, claim to have heard the shot from her home and immediately rushed out to see what happened. She said, “I went outside and asked the officers while they were putting yellow tape up who had gotten shot” because she was worried that it could possibly be her son since he hadn’t returned home. However, Camden police reassure the mother of three that it couldn’t have been her son because the victim was a female.

Although Mercado was still apprehensive, she returned to her home. However, not long after, police officials were knocking at her door, asking for a description of her son. She said at that very moment, she “knew something wasn’t right.” According to the Courier Post, the New Jersey teen was gunned down on a sidewalk and died the follow day at a local hospital, a week before his fourteenth birthday. Initially, there were no leads in the Plummer shooting until a teen girl turned herself in on January 9 for a shooting that took place on October 30, 2015.

But after an investigation, Camden police discovered that there was “ballistic evidence from the bullets” that linked the teen to Plummer’s shooting. The unnamed teen was then charged in the shooting death of Nathaniel Plummer Jr., who was the first homicide victim of 2016 and the “first kid to be killed in New Jersey since 2014.”

“I prayed to God every day to keep him safe, keep him safe, keep him safe,” said Mercado. “That was my first born. My one and only son. He means everything to me.”

“My baby didn’t even get to his birthday. He didn’t deserve this. He was just a baby. It’s not fair, it’s not fair. They took my baby away.”

Mercado stated that although Plummer was a good kid and was quite popular at his school, he was also troubled. After witnessing his father’s arrest, he changed and began living “two separate lives.” Plummer’s mom stated that he had been in counseling since he was six-years-old and not long before his death, he told his counselor that he was in a gang.

However, it wasn’t until Plummer’s mother discovered online photos of her son “holding up gang signs” that she advised him to take anger management courses, but before he could consider it, the teen was shot dead on the sidewalk. Mercado stated that her “Son isn’t the first individual who has died from gun violence, from gang activity. He’s not the first but I guarantee you as long as I have breath in my body, it’s gonna end.”

After learning of Plummer’s shooting death, his relatives gathered at his home, remembering his life. Mercado stated that her son “wanted to be a basketball player when he was older.” She went on to say that after Plummer pursued his dreams, “He said he was going to buy me a big house so I didn’t have to work.”

A spokesperson for the school district, Brendan Lowe, stated that “It’s a tragedy when a person this young loses his or her life. Nate was a great athlete who was well-liked by his peers and had several relatives who work for the school district.”

After Nathaniel Plummer Jr. was shot dead while walking to his grandmother’s house, Mercado buried him on January 18 and asked those attending not to “wear gang colors or ‘RIP’ shirts at the memorial service.”

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