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Soon after the shooting, Sequoya Mercer had heard her son was shot because his friends had robbed someone and he was recognized as someone who hung out with that group.

Sequoya Mercer, 37, said she held her son’s hand that night at University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center, and she felt him squeeze.

They depict scenes from five of Catherine’s novels: “The Falcon of Eric the Red,” “The Beggars’ Penny,” “The Bells of Leyden Sing,” “Sequoya” and “The Blue Cat of Castle Town.”

Their language was reduced to writing by means of an alphabet which one of their number named Sequoya had devised.

“The person they say killed my son is a baby himself,” Sequoya Mercer said before heading to the courthouse to watch a hearing in the case.