Officials in Milwaukee say the death of a Burger King employee, 16-year-old, was the result of a failed “staged” armed robbery.
Antoine Edwards, 41, and his daughter, a coworker of the deceased’s, have been arrested in connection with the crime, according to reports. Edwards faces many charges, including criminal murder.
According to FOX 6, Edwards and his daughter, Niesha Harris-Brazell, plotted together to arrange a robbery at the Burger King.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the murdered girl’s grandmother denied her granddaughter was engaged in the crime.
Ida Lane, the grandmother of the suspect, told the newspaper, “that’s complete and utter bullsh.”
The publication said that the father-daughter suspects’ remarks to police were the only proof of the deceased girl’s claimed participation in the robbery attempt.
In fact, Derrick Ellis, 34 years old, a Burger King worker who officials suspect was not participating in the conspiracy, but was instead attempting to halt the heist, shot and killed Harris-Brazell.
According to the Journal-Sentinel, Ellis left the scene shortly after the shooting and was still at large Friday, despite being a criminal in possession of a handgun while at work.
At 10 p.m., a Chevy Impala drove up to the drive-thru window at the restaurant, where security cameras captured the event.
According to authorities, Edwards gestured towards the window and one “juvenile male employee responds… and opens the window and briefly says something to the Impala driver. The Impala then pulls away, and the juvenile male closes the window,” a criminal complaint detailed.
When Harris-Brazell answered the window minutes later, the identical car had come up.
“The same Impala and driver re-appear at the drive-thru window. This time the victim…is in the area of the window, and she opens it. She immediately and quickly backs away from the open window and stands off to the side of the window, so that she is no longer visible to the driver of the Impala. She removes the cash drawer from the cash register and stands there holding it while she calls out towards the other employees who are in the interior of the restaurant,” the complaint continued.
After that, Edwards “inserts his upper body into the drive-thru window” and draws a gun.
Harris-Brazell, 16, allegedly falls to the ground as the guy re-enters the car with the weapon pointed at him.
There was no “there is no muzzle flash or smoke, no cartridge casing is ejected, and there is no motion consistent with the recoil of a gun,” according to the criminal complaint.
Internal cameras instead showed Ellis pointing a gun at the drive-thru window and shooting. At one point, he was seen with the rifle and shell casings, which he collected and stored in a safe inside the establishment, according to footage obtained by FOX 6.
After that, Ellis ran away, and police in Milwaukee were still looking for him as of Friday afternoon.
FOX 6 reports that Edwards’ daughter confirmed the Burger King heist was faked.
She “admitted that the robbery was staged to steal money, and she was in on the plan. She said that the victim, (Harris-Brazell), was her best friend. The Impala driver…was her father,” the complaint said.
In addition, Edwards gave a statement to the police in which he confirmed the sequence of events. As Fox 6 reported, he stated in his statement that the heist was orchestrated using Harris-Brazell rather than his daughter.
As part of their investigation into the heist, police apprehended a 38-year-old unnamed woman, but she was not charged with any crime.
