A Florida woman has been charged with murder after a man she setup to be robbed through a dating app fatally shot her brother in self-defense, according to a report.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that on May 31, Tat’yana Mekeva Gatson, 23, posed as a 22-year-old woman named “Jada” on the BLK dating app and linked up with an unidentified male.
According to the police, she decided to invite him to the Kains Palms Apartments, where her brother was waiting to rob him.
Gatson’s masked sibling, Jermon Kennard, 18, confronted him with a knife and demanded money upon his arrival.
According to the news source, the would-be victim then pulled a gun from his waist and gunned down Kennard, hitting him in his head and chest
Kennard was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to the Hillsborough County sheriff, Gatson informed responding officers that she believed her brother was going to be selling the man an iPhone and was not a participant in a plotted robbery.
She reported going outside to check on him after hearing 5 gunshots.
An investigation revealed, however, that Gatson had messaged her brother to meet her outside before the man’s arrival.
Gatson didn’t shoot her brother, but under Florida law, anyone involved in an attempted felony can be charged with murder.
Gatson is charged with second-degree murder and released on $15,000 bond.
Kennard was a senior at Carver Exceptional Center in Tampa. All who knew him will miss him, according to his obituary.
