*New details now indicate that the Burger King robbery that left Niesha Harris-Brazel dead was a staged-robbery-gone-wrong. Harris-Braze, 16, is said to have been part of the cast, according to Milwaukee authorities. On the night of January, she was at work, stationed at the drive-thru window. A black Chevy Impala popped up and its driver leaned through the restaurant window and demanded cash while pointing a gun at Niesha.
The driver asked her to hurry up as she turned to get the money from the cash register. While turning, she managed to signal to her workmates that things were not right and that she needed help. At that point, Derrick D. Ellis, a 34-year-old co-worker, reacted by producing a gun and firing twice at the robber. The stunned robber quickly got back into the driver’s seat and drove away fast without money.
In the ensuing confusion, Ellis had accidentally shot Niesha, who collapsed to the floor saying she was shot. She later died in the hospital, where she was rushed after the incident. CCTV has shown Ellis hurrying to pick up the spent cartridges when he realized he’d shot his co-worker. He then surrendered the gun to a store manager who concealed it in the restaurant’s safe.
Ellis is a convicted felon and is still on the run following this incident. Last week, prosecutors charged him with murder and felony gun possession, according to a Yahoo report.
The driver of the Impala turned out to be one Antoine Edwards, the father of Mariah Edwards, one of the Burger King employees who were in the same shift with Niesha on the night of the robbery. The driver was arrested and charged with felony murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, and intentionally aiding the delinquency of a child, an act that resulted in death.
His daughter Mariah confessed to the investigators that her father and Niesha were part of the staged robbery. However, she clarified that Ellis was not in the know, which explains why he produced a gun and shot at the driver. Mariah further informed the police that the robbery was staged on that night because they knew the Burger King register would be full of cash.
However, her father, who is being held on $100,000 bail, contradicted her, claiming she was not part of the plan as she claims, and that only Niesha was with him in the messed-up robbery. But Niesha’s mother, Liceal Brazell, has come out to refute the allegations that her daughter was an accomplice in the robbery that claimed her life.
“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,” she said to FOX6.
To raise $5000 for Niesha’s funeral expenses, her family soon created a GoFundMe account. The fundraising ran smoothly as police went on with the investigations. When more bizarre details emerged about the case, GoFundMe decided to freeze the account. By then, the collection was over $40,000.
Part of GoFundMe policies explicitly prohibits raising funds for those determined to be part of criminal acts. Should it be proven that Niesha was an accomplice in the ill-fated robbery, the money already collected will be given back to donors.
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