Robbery Led to Triple Homicide

About those four homicides in Milwaukee last Friday--

The narrative has changed a bit. The "don't worry, it was a small group of interconnected people" doesn't exactly apply in the same way as first proposed.

According to Milwaukee police, the murders of Rachel Thompson, 23, and her little boys, Torian Thompson-Carter, 4, and Jaden Thompson-Carter, 3, were the result of a robbery that "escalated."

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Police believe a robbery that escalated out of control led to Friday's killings of a 23-year-old woman and two of her young children inside a duplex on Milwaukee's south side, a source close to the investigation said Tuesday.

Investigators also believe Brittney Robertson, 19, was shot in the head and killed later Friday on the city's northwest side because of her knowledge and involvement in the triple homicide, the source said.

Reports of a love triangle being at the root of the killings are false, the source said.

...Two people who were arrested - a 21-year-old Milwaukee man and a 23-year-old Milwaukee man - are in custody "for direct involvement" but have not been charged in Robertson's killing, police Lt. Thomas Stigler said Tuesday.

...The other people in custody, and the others still being sought by police, might have played accessory roles in Robertson's killing, Stigler said.

...The five people who have been arrested were "known to Brittney Robertson," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward A. Flynn said Monday. It's not known what, if any, relationship the suspects might have had to Thompson, he said.

...The two men in custody and believed to be directly involved in Robertson's killing have criminal records, according to court files.

The 21-year-old man is being held on suspicion of homicide, according to arrest records.

Since 2006, he has been convicted of cocaine possession, operating a vehicle while fleeing or eluding an officer, second-degree recklessly endangering safety, criminal damage to property and escape-criminal arrest, court records show.

The 23-year-old man is being held on suspicion of violating parole and aiding a felon, according to arrest records. Since 2004, he has been convicted of misappropriation of personal identification, disorderly conduct, operating a vehicle while fleeing or eluding an officer, and taking and driving a vehicle without consent, according to court records.

In 2007, he was convicted of attempted armed robbery with threat of force and sentenced to three years' imprisonment and five years of extended supervision, court records show. He received credit for 272 days served when he was sentenced, according to the court records.

Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn repeatedly said that there was no reason for the public to fear for their safety because the killings were not random, that those involved were "a small group of interconnected people known to each other."

I got the impression that there was some personal motivation for the killings, some sort of relationship issues.

It turns out that the murders were the outcome of a robbery?

That's very, very different.

Why murder the two little boys? Why not spare them if the killings were robbery-related? They were much too young to act as witnesses.

Obviously, there is some interconnection among the people in that Thompson was the mother of 6-week-old Maurice Visor and Robertson had been in a relationship with Maurice Visor, the currently incarcerated father of the baby. Thompson and Robertson were roommates. They shared a home.

True, the murders were NOT random acts in that the people involved were not complete strangers. Clearly, Robertson turned on Thompson and then Robertson's partners in crime turned on her.

BUT--

The criminal records of the men being held on suspicion of homicide indicate that they are very bad guys.

I consider them to be a serious threat to the public's safety. Read their criminal records.

Were their laundry list of past crimes all involving "interconnected people"? Did they always know their victims in some way? They never preyed on random victims?

I find that very hard to believe.

Bottom line: The homicide suspects now in custody were much more of a threat to the larger community than police at first described.

I guess that "five years of extended supervision" for the 23-year-old proved to not work out too well.

Four people are dead, two of them completely innocent little boys.

But don't worry about it. This was just a "small group of interconnected people."

__________________

Brittney Robertson had a history of domestic violence and faced charges related to drugs and driving a stolen car.

She, too, was not a model citizen. She also was a threat to the community.

Robertson's mother claims that her daughter cared for Thompson's children.

Robertson, 50, said her daughter seemed to care deeply for Thompson and her children, perhaps because Brittney could relate to Thompson's loss of a parent and the challenges her boys faced growing up without their fathers.

When she was 6 years old, Thompson watched her mother's boyfriend kill Thompson's mother and grandmother.

When Brittney Robertson was 13, her father drowned in a boating accident in Waukesha County.

If Brittney Robertson did care deeply for Torian and Jaden, she wouldn't have been involved in the robbery that led to the deaths of the boys and their mother.

Losing one's father at an early age is no excuse to become a criminal.

Whatever trauma we may have experienced, we're still responsible for our behavior and our choices.