LOWELL — Grieving friends and family of 15-year-old Ahliana Dickey packed a courtroom in Lowell District Court Monday morning as Trevor Bady was arraigned on multiple charges stemming from Dickey’s shooting death last week.
Bady, 21, of Tewksbury, was arraigned on charges of murder, home invasion, carrying a firearm without a license, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, possession of ammunition without an FID card, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He is scheduled for a July 31 probable cause hearing.
Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Christopher Tarrant said during the arraignment that prosecutors would be seeking a first-degree murder conviction. Judge Zachary Hillman granted the prosecution’s request to hold Bady without bail.
Dickey had been just hours away from her eighth grade graduation ceremony when the shooting is believed to have taken place. When she did not arrive at the ceremony, her family became concerned, and a search began Friday. She was found in her home on Lawrence Street in South Lowell just after 6 p.m. Friday, where emergency medical technicians soon pronounced her dead.
Dickey’s family members sitting in the courtroom gallery could be heard gasping when Tarrant said eight 9mm bullet casings were found at the scene in Dickey’s bedroom, and that she suffered gunshot wounds to her neck and torso.
“Officers spoke with several individuals who believe that the victim’s boyfriend, identified as 21-year-old Trevor Bady, presented before the court today, may be responsible for Ahliana’s death,” said Tarrant.
Tarrant said family members and friends who were interviewed during the investigation described Bady as being abusive to Dickey, something she had confided to people about days before her death.
“Ahliana had informed others that Bady had been hitting her, giving her bruises and a bloody lip. Family members described seeing bruises on Ahliana’s legs, knees and arms as recently as June 13, 2024,” said Tarrant. “On June 12, 2024, Ahliana confided in one person that this defendant made statements such as ‘I am going to kill you. I am going to kill your grandma,’ and that he was going to shoot up her house, and that he threatened to kidnap her and shoot her.”
According to the police narrative, Dickie showed someone else a picture of Bady holding a gun two weeks before her death.
Neighbors of Dickey had reported an altercation between a male and female outside on Lawrence Street Thursday night into Friday around midnight, an interaction that was caught on doorbell cameras, Tarrant said.
A doorbell camera captured images of a man believed to be Bady getting out of a vehicle and entering Dickey’s home through a door that accesses to Dickey’s bedroom before that altercation and the shooting, Tarrant said. One caller, Tarrant said, claimed they heard a voice that is believed to be Dickey’s saying, “Get off me, get away from me. I don’t want to be with you anymore.” A camera also caught the sound of eight gunshots at 12:06 a.m. Friday, followed by images caught on another camera of the man leaving Dickey’s home minutes later and running down Lawrence Street.
Tarrant said an Uber driver later reported a suspicious passenger, believed to be Bady, who had taken the Uber to and from Dickey’s home before and after the shooting. According to court documents, the Uber driver had been pulled over by police with a broken taillight when he reported his concerns. The Uber driver reported the passenger claimed that he was “set up,” and “wasn’t the one who fired the gun.”
Bady left the Uber when they arrived in Nashua, New Hampshire, near the residence of another girlfriend. Tarrant said Bady opened the car door with his sweatshirt and told the driver to wipe down the door afterward. On Saturday evening a Lowell Police detective made contact with Bady over the phone, Tarrant said. During that call, Bady allegedly claimed to have not been in Lowell over the last two weeks.
Bady and his Nashua girlfriend had allegedly paid for three nights at a Motel 6 in Tewksbury Friday evening. After Bady learned the police were looking for him, Tarrant said, he left the motel and went to a residence in Peabody.
Bady was later tracked down at that residence, the occupants of which Tarrant said denied that Bady was present. Officers reportedly then observed Bady trying to exit the building through a back window and placed him under arrest without incident.
Bady faced violent firearms charges in 2022, prosecutors said, but those charges were dismissed when witnesses failed to appear for the trial.
As court staff informed Bady that he would be held without bail, a friend or family member of Dickey shouted “Coward!” at Bady, a sentiment some of them repeated outside the court building afterward. When asked by reporters how Dickey’s family would want her to be remembered, they described her as “a beautiful person.”
A GoFundMe was set up to help support Dickey’s family, which had raised more than $11,000 as of Tuesday afternoon. A MealTrain account, a service that allows people to volunteer to make and donate meals to people in need of support, was also set up to help the family.
