A Missouri woman tracked down her teenage brother’s killer, murdered him, then sent her dead brother a text message saying she avenged his death.
Prosecutors say Tityana Coppage, 21, fatally shot 36-year-old Keith Lars in a Kansas City parking lot on January 13.
Coppage is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. She is being held on $200,000 bail.
Police found Lars dead in the back of a grey Toyota near Virginia Avenue and Admiral Boulevard.
Coppage believed Lars was responsible for the murder of her 16-year-old brother, Jayson Ugwuh JR., according to Fox 4 News. Ugwuh was killed while walking home with two friends on January 10.
Police collected 23 spent shell casings from two different guns in the area.
Coppage told police that she met Lars in the area of Independence Avenue and Benton Boulevard and followed him to a nearby parking lot.
When they arrived, a black SUV pulled into the lot and parked, but no one exited the vehicle.
She claimed that Lars started shooting at the SUV and that she was also going to shoot at the SUV, but Lars told her to remain in her car.
She said she fired her weapon out of her passenger window and Lars “got in the way” of the gunfire.
Police reviewed Coppage’s cell phone and discovered text messages sent to someone she referred to as “Auntie” after the shooting.
Coppage requested more bullets and wrote: “Lol I used to many on bro [sic].”
A text was also sent to her dead brother’s cell phone: “sent a Ni**a to my brother I owe em that body [sic].”
Coppage’s nine-year-old brother Jayden Ugwuh along with their 8-year-old cousin Montell Ross were killed in 2016 when someone fired more than 20 shots into the family home.
In the above screenshot, tears roll down Jayson’s face as he talked about the deaths of his little brother and cousin in 2016.
Jayson, who was 12 at the time, was asleep in his room when his little brother was struck by a stray bullet.
Jayson Ugwuh Sr., the boys’ father, said little Jayden “Didn’t even cry, just got hit and ran and laid up under his big brother, you know. Like he knew exactly where to go for comfort.”
