A third suspect was arrested Wednesday in the fatal shooting of an aspiring actress who confronted a group of muggers with: “What are you going to do, shoot us?”
Ashley Evans, 18, was picked up on murder and other charges by New York detectives in Maryland, where she had fled to stay with relatives, police said. An arraignment on murder and other charges was scheduled for later Wednesday.
Police described Evans as a friend of the alleged shooter, 19-year-old Rudy Fleming. Tatianna McDonald, 14, also has been charged with murder.
The suspects allegedly were in a group that accosted Nicole duFresne, 28, her fiance and another couple on Jan. 27 after they left a bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, known for hip nightspots.
Witnesses said that after the suspects demanded money and grabbed for the other woman’s purse, duFresne intervened, asking: “What are you going to do, shoot us?”
After a brief shoving match between duFresne and Fleming, he allegedly fired a single shot into her chest, police said.
McDonald, who surrendered on Monday, confessed to police that she was with the gunman and that she had taken a cell phone from the stolen purse, according to court papers.
Fleming and four others were picked up for questioning late Sunday. Two of the four were charged in an attempted robbery the same night but not in duFresne’s slaying, and the remaining two were considered witnesses.
Police said the weapon — a .357-caliber revolver — was found in the home of one of Fleming’s relatives.
DuFresne’s Web site described her as a writer, actor and producer. A Minnesota native, she was a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, and was active in several avant-garde theater projects in Manhattan and elsewhere.