Anthony Lofton was a 22-year-old father of twin daughters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On the morning of March 13, 2022, a passerby in McKees Rocks discovered his body lying in Derby Alley around 6:30 a.m. and alerted police. First responders pronounced him dead at the scene. An autopsy later confirmed that Lofton, a Black man, had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The investigation quickly led police to his girlfriend, 24-year-old Brook Lynn Lank. According to prosecutors and Lank’s own account to police, the couple had a violent altercation at her home on March 12, 2022, in which Lofton pushed her to the ground and threatened her with two guns. He left in her rental car but returned hours later. Around 5 a.m. on March 13, they left together in the car, a burgundy Ford Taurus, to drive to McKeesport for a drug deal. During the drive, they began to argue again. Lank told police she took Lofton’s gun from him and shot him. She stated that because he was still breathing and reaching for her, she shot him two more times.
After the shooting, Lank picked up another man. Surveillance footage from around 6:05 a.m. showed the Ford Taurus stopping in Derby Alley, where the man removed Lofton’s body from the passenger seat and left him in the road. Lank told police she threw the gun out of the car window. Investigators tracked the rental car using its GPS locator, which led them to an Econo Lodge. There, they found the Taurus with blood stains inside and saw a man attempting to clean the interior.
Police arrested Lank on March 14, 2022. During her interview, she admitted to shooting Lofton, panicking, and leaving his body in the alley. She also acknowledged trying to clean the blood out of the rental car, reportedly telling detectives, “I obviously did not do a very good job.” She was charged with criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse.
In June 2025, Brook Lynn Lank pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and abuse of a corpse. At her sentencing hearing, Lofton’s sister said he was left “in the street like garbage” and that his twin daughters would now grow up without him. In July 2025, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kelly E. Bigley sentenced Lank to serve five to 10 years in prison. After the sentence was handed down, Lank attempted to retract her guilty plea, but her request was denied.
