In the early morning hours of March 21, 2016, Allex Bryant, a 28-year-old Black man from Boston, was shot and killed. The fatal incident occurred around 3:00 a.m. on Humboldt Avenue in the Roxbury neighborhood, just after Bryant had left a birthday party. He was sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car when gunfire erupted. Bryant suffered a single, fatal gunshot wound to the torso, while another man in the car with him was wounded but survived.
The car they were in was left riddled with bullets.
The investigation into the shooting led Boston Police to identify three suspects: brothers Dartanyan Pledger and Niccokowan Pledger-Grant, and Lisa Lewis, Niccokowan's girlfriend. Evidence showed that Niccokwan Pledger had briefly attended the same party on Humboldt Avenue, leaving before Bryant had arrived. Cell phone records were crucial in placing both brothers and Lewis in the vicinity at the time of the murder. The records also revealed a 19-minute phone call between the Pledger brothers that ended just one minute before a ShotSpotter activation alerted police to the gunfire.
Security camera footage captured after the shooting showed Dartanyan Pledger running and getting into a Nissan Maxima driven by Lisa Lewis. Niccokawon Pledger was also recorded tossing a Sig Sauer. 45 caliber semi-automatic handgun into a Toyota Camry registered to his brother, Dartanyan. A search of this Camry, found at the scene with ballistic damage, revealed a firearm on the driver's side floor, along with Dartanyan's wallet and cell phone. The firearm that delivered the fatal shot was recovered on the sidewalk next to the car.
Months after the murder, the suspects were apprehended. In August 2016, U.S. Marshals arrested Dartanyan Pledger in Atlanta, Georgia. In September, Niccokawon Pledger-Grant and Lisa Lewis were located and arrested in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Following an eight-day deliberation in May 2018, a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted both Dartanyan and Niccokawan Pledger of second-degree murder. The verdict carried a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole. Lisa Lewis was convicted on two counts of being an accessory after the fact.
