The Milwaukee man captured on surveillance footage reaching through the window of the Burger King where 16-year-old Niesha Harris-Brazell was shot and killed is now charged on multiple criminal counts. New information in the case indicated that he, his daughter, and the victim were all part of the staged robbery that turned deadly.
According to the complaint, 41-year-old Antoine Edwards was charged with felony murder, intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child, and death is a consequence and possession of a firearm by a felon, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.
As News Onyx previously reported, police responded to the Burger King restaurant near 51st and Capitol drive on Sunday, Jan. 2. When authorities arrived at the scene, they found Harris-Brazell’s body near the drive-thru window. She appeared to have suffered fatal gunshot wounds.
Edward’s daughter, who worked alongside Harris-Brazell at the restaurant, did not initially inform investigators that she, Edwards, and the victim were part of the stagged robbery. The video from the camera inside the restaurant showed Edwards tapping on the drive-thru window around 10 p.m. when a “juvenile male employee responded to the tapping and opened the window, briefly saying something to Edwards. He then drove away, and the juvenile male closed the window,” the complaint said.
About three minutes later, the complaint stated that Edwards re-appeared at the drive-thru window, and Harris-Brazell quickly backed away from the window, standing to the side while holding the cash drawer from the cash register. She then called other restaurant employees for help in the restaurant’s dining area. Edwards told police that Harris-Brazell did not hand over the money as planned and “was taking too long,” so he crawled through the window while holding a semiautomatic pistol.
“Suddenly, someone inside the building started shooting, so [Edwards] retreated and took off in the car,” prosecutors wrote.
Though Edwards was seen at the drive-thru window moments before Brazell was hit, his gun did not fire off the shot. There was no “muzzle flash or smoke, no cartridge casing was ejected, and there is no motion consistent with the recoil of a gun,” the complaint stated.
“Edwards immediately drove away, and [Harris-Brazell] remained on the floor, rolling about, bleeding, and crying out,” the complaint against Edwards said.
The defendant’s daughter confirmed that the victim, Harris-Brazell, was her best friend, and Edward’s was her father. A few days before the incident, she said that she, Harris-Brazell, and her father knew about the plan. Harris-Brazell usually would be assigned to the window during the work shift while the 41-year-old’s daughter worked the kitchen. The initial plan was for the 16-year-old victim to hand over the money to the robber.
The camera also captured a male employee, Derrick Ellis, who reportedly fired a pistol into the drive-thru window at the time of the encounter. Ellis is charged in connection to the case.
According to the criminal complaint, Ellis, a convicted felon and not legally allowed to carry a gun, reportedly picked up the shell casings and asked his manager to hide them and the gun in the establishment’s safe. Police recovered the weapon from the restaurant’s safe.
While Edwards was scheduled to appear in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Friday, Jan. 14, the date was postponed due to multiple court hearings on the docket, the intake court said. He is also charged with felony firearm possession and disorderly conductin in a separate case days before the Burger King shooting, FOX5Atlanta reported.
Harris-Brazell’s mother recently spoke out about the incident involving her now-deceased daughter.
“It’s really making me mad. It’s making me angry. You told so many different lies. Now you’re going to tell more lies. That’s not going to help you. That’s not going to help your father,” said Harris-Brazell’s mother, Liceal Brazell, in an interview with FOX6 News on Friday. “Why would she do that? She didn’t need no money.”
She said the two people involved in the case are trying to cover their tracks as the investigation continues.
“But my God is good, and he will make sure everything comes to light. And I really feel that,” Brazell said.
Hours after the shooting, police arrested a 38-year-old confirmed as the restaurant’s manager who reportedly stashed Ellis’ weapon in the restaurant’s safe. She was booked into the Milwaukee County jail on a misdemeanor charge of resisting or obstructing an officer and a felony charge of straw purchasing a firearm, according to records obtained by FOX6 News.
The woman was released on a $1300 bail, and her identity remains unknown with no pending charges against her.
