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Robbery victim shot to death while sleeping in Detroit home

Dennis Shelby Jr. killed in drive-by shooting on Roselawn Street

DETROIT – A mother says her 24-year-old son was scheduled to testify in a robbery case before he was fatally shot Thursday morning on Detroit's northwest side.

Valerie Shelby told Local 4 her son, Dennis, had been threatened by people telling him he shouldn't testify next week.

"The boy that armed robbed him is in jail bragging about how he's going to get my son killed if my son tried to come to court," Shelby said.

Drive-by gunfire erupted around 2:45 a.m. into the family's home in the 20200 block of Roselawn Street.

There were four people in the home at the time of the shooting, but only Dennis was hit.

"I ran to my son's bedroom door and I was banging on his door and I said, ‘Lord, have mercy. He's not saying nothing. He's not saying nothing,'" Shelby said. "My son was just lying there, shot in his head. I hope they get who did this."

Shelby said her son leaves behind five children -- the youngest is 6 months old.

"My son is a good boy. He don't do no wrong. He went to school. He graduated. He got a couple of years of college in," Shelby said.

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