On November 19, 2021, 19-year-old Shania Robinson was found unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a car in the 4000 block of 21st Street in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, after being struck by a single gunshot. First responders arrived around 4 p.m., but she did not survive.

Investigators say Robinson was an unwitting victim during a planned armed robbery inside her vehicle. Two men, 18-year-old Deramus Devalle Harris Jr. and Jerrell Brown, were in the backseat to conduct a prearranged sale of a handgun. According to court documents, after the buyer paid, Harris tried to take the money back while regaining possession of the gun. A struggle over the firearm ensued, Brown allegedly joined to help Harris, and a shot fired inside the car struck Robinson. The buyer reported seeing the gun thrown onto the roadway as the vehicle left, and a witness later saw Harris and Brown in the car as it departed.

Both men were arrested in the days after the shooting; Harris was charged with murder and second-degree robbery and was already out on bond for a separate 2020 murder charge, while Brown was charged with murder and second-degree robbery and faced additional unrelated charges. Did anyone in Tuscaloosa see that car or have information about the sale that led to Shania Robinson’s death?