'I'm going to die': Paterson police director repeats haunting words of shooting victim
During the second day of testimony in the murder trial of Donqua Thomas, Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale repeated the haunting words Remy Lee said to him as he tried to save her life.
"I'm going to die. I can't breathe," Speziale recalled Lee saying as he was attempting to calm her down. "Why did he do this to me? My baby father."
Lee, 31, was found shot in the parking lot outside of her apartment at the Brooks-Sloate Terrace apartment complex in October 2020. She was nine months pregnant at the time, and Thomas, her baby's father, is on trial for her killing.
Speziale was one of the first law enforcement officers on the scene. During his testimony, he said he was at his office in the police complex when he received a call from Della Fischer, chief of staff for Mayor Andre Sayegh, that a woman had been shot at Christina Place.
Speziale said he jumped into his police vehicle to head to the scene and while on the way, he contacted Capt. Pat Murray, who is in charge of the ceasefire unit and the special investigation unit that handles shootings. The public safety director described the scene when he got there, saying people were calling his name and he saw Lee lying on her right side on the sidewalk.
He testified that he tried to provide lifesaving care for Lee and to calm her down to prevent her heart from pumping too much blood.
He said he took Lee's mother, Charlene Keeling, to the hospital behind the ambulance and that he heard the hospital staff deliver Lee's baby girl and that the hospital said Lee had died.
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When cross-examined by the defense, Speziale said Lee never identified Thomas by name.
Before Speziale's testimony, Passaic County Assistant Prosecutor Allen Nawrocki continued testimony by Keeling, who described her daughter's demeanor while she was comforting her. She also went over how the apartment complex was laid out and the photos of Thomas that she identified for the police.
When testifying on cross-examination, Keeling told defense attorney Thomas McQuillan that she almost passed out when Lee told her Thomas was the one who shot her because she didn't expect "to hear his name said that day."
Keeling said Thomas was never disrespectful to her daughter or argumentative in her presence.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ pregnant woman's final words focus at murder trial
