Police say posts made before Tamar Shaw’s death helped shape the murder case against a 17-year-old girl.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Social media videos posted before an 18-year-old Harrisburg-area man was fatally stabbed are now central to the murder case against his 17-year-old girlfriend, according to police and court records released this week.
Authorities say the videos, combined with physical evidence from a Market Street home and a coroner’s finding that the fatal wound required significant force, pushed the investigation beyond an account of an accidental cutting in bed. The victim, Ta’Mar Shaw of Steelton, was stabbed Monday night and died the next day. By Tuesday, Harrisburg police had arrested Delaysia Terrell-Brown and filed murder-related charges. The case has drawn local attention not only because of the ages of those involved, but because investigators say the suspected threats were captured on Instagram before the deadly wound was inflicted.
Police said officers were called to the 1400 block of Market Street at about 10:52 p.m. Monday for a report of a man losing blood. Shaw was found in the kitchen with a bloody towel pressed to his chest, according to the affidavit. Officers said he could not clearly tell them what happened, complained that he could not breathe and then fell to the floor. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died. The Dauphin County Coroner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide from a stab wound to the chest. Investigators cited that ruling as a major turning point because, they said, the wound entered the chest cavity and indicated significant force.
Before police found the videos, Terrell-Brown gave officers a different explanation, according to charging documents. She said Shaw had asked for a small kitchen knife to cut paper to roll a blunt while the two were in bed. She suggested the knife may have become wrapped in blankets and that Shaw was injured when the bedding was moved. In another statement, police said, she said she did not know where Shaw had put the knife and did not see the exact instant he was wounded. Officers wrote that she admitted the couple had argued earlier in the day but said they were not fighting when Shaw was stabbed. Investigators later searched the room and collected three knives, blood-stained bedding, a white towel, a torn black comforter, marijuana roaches and other paraphernalia.
The following morning, police said, a Crime Stoppers tip directed them to Instagram content allegedly posted from Terrell-Brown’s account shortly before the stabbing. According to the affidavit, one clip showed a hand with a knife making a stabbing motion toward Shaw. Another showed a knife pointed at him while the speaker said he was not going to do anything and warned him to take it as a threat. A third allegedly showed a serrated knife thrown onto Shaw’s neck while he was lying in bed. Investigators said knives seen in the videos appeared consistent with knives seized from the room. Police also wrote that during the 911 call, the caller repeatedly requested an ambulance but did not ask for police. Those details do not answer every question in the case, but they help explain why investigators treated the videos as evidence of intent rather than rough behavior caught on camera.
Harrisburg police announced that Terrell-Brown was arrested Tuesday, April 7, in connection with what they described as a homicide investigation opened the night before. A police posting listed murder and possession of an instrument of crime counts. Television reports based on the affidavit also said she was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said the work is not finished, stressing that investigators are still sorting out the sequence of events and evaluating all the evidence. That leaves some key details unresolved in public, including who else was present in the home, whether anyone directly witnessed the stabbing and what prosecutors will argue the videos show about motive and state of mind.
The story has unsettled residents around Market Street, where neighbors said the case was hard to understand because it involved teenagers and a private argument that turned fatal. The public record so far paints a narrow, tense scene: a couple in a bedroom, knives within reach, posts later reviewed by detectives, then a rush to get Shaw medical help after the wound was discovered. In many homicide cases, investigators build outward from a street scene. Here, much of the case appears to have been built inward from a bedroom, a phone screen and the physical signs left behind on sheets, towels and blades.
As of Thursday, Shaw’s death remained under active investigation and Terrell-Brown faced homicide-related charges. The next step is expected to come in Dauphin County court, where prosecutors and defense lawyers will begin testing the affidavit, the seized evidence and the social media material described by police.
Author note: Last updated April 9, 2026.