NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) – Three teenagers were charged with murder Tuesday in the shooting of a 61-year-old man in his living room in front of his wife.

Thomas Murray died Monday morning at St. Luke’s Hospital after arguing with Ramon Geliga, 17, his brother Robert, 18, and Bobby Lecroy, 17, at Murray’s New Bedford apartment, police Lt. Richard M. Spirlet said.

Police declined to comment on a motive, but Cheryl Murray, the victim’s wife, told The Standard-Times of New Bedford that the boys wanted to know why her husband had told a neighbor not to lend his car to them anymore.

“They put a gun up to his head and they just said, You’re not going to tell us what to do,”‘ she told the Standard-Times.

She said she was across the small living room when her husband defied the intruders. “Go ahead and shoot me,” she heard him say. They shot her husband in the torso, then threatened her, Cheryl Murray said.

Police say Ramon Geliga fired the fatal shot with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol that was recovered during the arrests.

The three were ordered held without bail after pleading innocent at their arraignment Tuesday before Judge Bernadette Sabra. They are to return to court April 5.

In addition to the murder charges, Ramon Geliga and Lecroy are also charged with illegal possession of a firearm, Spirlet said.

Cheryl Murray said the suspects had been to the apartment before, asking to use the phone, and had stolen her pocketbook.

Later, Thomas Murray spoke to a neighbor who had been letting the men drive his car, she said.

“I hope they rot in jail for the rest of their lives,” Cheryl Murray said. “I couldn’t believe what they did,” she said.