Police: 18-year-old charged after robbery attempt fails, boyfriend dies

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - An 18-year-old Tennessee woman has been charged in a robbery attempt that police say resulted in the death of her boyfriend.

Police say that at 1:28 a.m. last Tuesday, officers responded to a shooting call in Memphis’ Westwood neighborhood, where they found a man lying on the ground outside, unresponsive.

The 21-year-old victim was transported in critical condition to a local hospital, where he later died, police say.

Witnesses told police that they saw a woman picking up items in the area of the crime scene before police arrived. During the course of the investigation, it was determined that the woman in question was the victim’s girlfriend, Kerryoni Brown.

Brown was located and brought to the Memphis Police Department’s Homicide Office, where she allegedly admitted to police that the shooting was the result of a failed attempt for her and her boyfriend to rob a drug dealer together.

She reportedly told police that she let her boyfriend use her Facebook profile to lure the dealer into the area for an “honest drug deal,” where, according to their plan, he would then rob the dealer at gunpoint.

Brown said her boyfriend armed himself with two handguns before the robbery attempt, WMC reports.

The two parties met in the area as planned. However, Brown told police that when her boyfriend pulled out his gun, someone inside the dealer’s car fired several shots at him.

Brown told police that she picked up her boyfriend’s two weapons after he was shot and fled the scene before officers arrived.

Brown is charged with reckless homicide, aggravated robbery and tampering with/or fabricating evidence. She is being held on an $85,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.