In the late hours of a November night in Memphis, Tennessee, a young British-Israeli man named Aviv Broek was drawn into a fatal trap. The 21-year-old, who worked as a locksmith, received a service call that seemed urgent—a mother was supposedly stuck in her car. Lured by the plea for help and an offer of double payment, Broek traveled to a remote location in the 2300 block of Hernando Road just before 1:30 a.m. on November 22, 2024.
Upon arriving at what turned out to be an abandoned house, he was ambushed, shot multiple times, and robbed. Authorities later stated that the young man, a male, did not resist his attackers.
Concerns grew when Broek became unreachable. Two hours after the shooting, worried friends who worked with him used a location-tracking app on their phones to find him. They discovered him lying on the ground near his vehicle and immediately contacted the police. When officers arrived, Aviv Broek was pronounced dead at the scene. The perpetrators had stolen his work equipment, cash, and his Israeli passport, leaving behind his wallet and British passport.
The investigation into the murder led Memphis Police to two teenage suspects. An unnamed 17-year-old and a 16-year-old were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the perpetration of a robbery and especially aggravated robbery. The older suspect, later identified as Arthur Jones Jr., has since turned 18 and was transferred to the adult court system to face his charges, which also include murder committed during the perpetration of a felony. Prosecutors allege that the deadly encounter was an orchestrated robbery aimed at stealing Broek's valuable car programmers and key fobs to facilitate vehicle thefts. A judge set his bond at $400,000.
While law enforcement has maintained that the motive was robbery and that there is no indication of a hate crime, Broek's family believes otherwise. They have publicly called for the FBI to investigate the murder as a hate crime, pointing to his stolen Israeli passport and their fear that he was targeted for being a Zionist Jew. The family, who participated in a court hearing via video call from Israel, expressed their satisfaction with the decision to try Jones as an adult. In the wake of the tragedy, Aviv Broek's body was returned to Israel for burial.
