Details emerge in double slaying at apartment complex

By William D'Urso

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 | 7:30 p.m.

Laurice Brightman was shot in the buttocks during a Tuesday evening robbery at his apartment, but he was able to fight off one of the three armed assailants, escape and call for help. His friends, Anthony Anderson and Evin Russell, did not.

Just before 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Brightman and his friends were in his 370 E. Harmon Avenue apartment when they heard a knock at the door, Metro Police said in a report. Sasha Williams, 20, a frequent visitor to the apartment, was there with her boyfriend Maurice Sims, 22, and his friend Brandon Range, 23, and a third man. Williams wanted to collect a debt she thought was owed to her, but Anderson and Brightman would not let the three men in, police said. That’s when the assailants each drew a gun, forced their way into the apartment, and began to beat Brightman and his friends.

The three victims were forced to sit on the floor and the couch as Williams instructed her cohorts to look for money and take other valuables like the TV, iPhones, a Sony PlayStation, and a MacBook Pro, the report said.

After about 15 minutes, Anderson suddenly leaped up and attacked one of the gunmen, police said. Brightman followed and began punching another gunman, police said. He later identified the man he fought as Range. During the fight, Brightman was shot in the buttocks but he was able to escape to the bedroom, and jump out the window, police said. He heard at least four gunshots as he made his escape, police said.

Just after 8 p.m. Brightman reached the front office of his apartment complex, Harbor Island Apartments, where an office attendant called Metro. Shortly after, Brightman was transported to Sunrise Hospital for treatment.

When police arrived at his apartment, they found the bodies of his friends.

Police went to Sims' apartment at 2101 Warm Springs Road at 5 a.m. Wednesday, the morning after the killings.

The three suspects were all booked on charges of home invasion, conspiracy to commit robbery, murder, attempted murder, robbery and burglary. The whereabouts of the fourth suspect was unknown.