In the predawn hours of August 7, 2017, the quiet of an Atmore, Alabama neighborhood was shattered by a violent home invasion. Inside his Broad Street residence, 56-year-old Robert Kennedy and a female companion, Joi McClammy, were asleep in bed when assailants forced their way into the home. The intruders, demanding money, opened fire on the couple. Both Kennedy and McClammy were struck by multiple gunshots.
Emergency services were dispatched to the scene at approximately 3:16 a.m., where they found the two victims with serious injuries. Kennedy was airlifted to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, where he ultimately succumbed to his wounds. McClammy was also transported to the hospital and survived the attack.
Rumors circulated that Kennedy had recently won a substantial amount of money at a local racetrack and had been seen with his winnings publicly, which investigators believed may have been the motive for the brutal assault. The investigation into the homicide led Atmore police to identify three suspects. In November 2017, authorities announced the arrests of 29-year-old Darrell Octavius Brown of Atmore, 20-year-old Deion Lamar Booth of Mobile, and an unidentified juvenile. At the time of being charged in Kennedy's murder, Brown was already incarcerated in the Escambia County Detention Center on charges related to a separate murder case. Booth was being held in the Mobile Metro Jail on burglary charges.
Both Brown and Booth faced a string of serious charges, including capital murder, attempted murder, first-degree robbery, and first-degree burglary. The juvenile suspect was also taken into custody and placed in a juvenile detention facility. The arrests brought a sense of relief to Kennedy's family, who had been anxiously awaiting a break in the case. The charges against the three individuals marked a significant development in the investigation, bringing the family one step closer to potential justice for the violent and untimely death of Robert Kennedy.
