A 37-year-old Minnesota woman has admitted that she fatally shot another woman in Minneapolis, according to reports.
Erica Shameka Roberts pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court last week to second-degree unintentional murder in connection with the shooting of 30-year-old Tanasha Austin on March 18, 2022, in the 1900 block of S. Colfax Avenue.
The plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense calls for Roberts to receive a 15-year sentence. With credit for time in jail since her arrest, she is expected to serve the first 9¼ years in prison and the balance on supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for September 22.
Roberts’ criminal history in Minnesota also includes convictions for first-degree robbery and aiding and abetting theft.
Police said an argument led up to the 7:40 a.m. shooting, and a 911 caller said a person was loaded into a vehicle and taken away. At the scene, officers were told that Austin was dropped off at HCMC. She died at the hospital.
A witness to the shooting said Roberts and Austin were in a vehicle with others when the two women started arguing, the charges read. Roberts, seated in back, lunged forward with a gun in her hand. The witness tried to take the gun from Roberts but failed to keep Austin from being shot, the charges continued.
Austin was shot in the chest, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
Dedrah Lessley, Austin’s mother, posted on an online fundraising page soon after the shooting that her daughter “was was the life of the room and brought BIG energy into it! She leaves behind her 10-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter.”
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