In the early morning hours of July 22, 2018, the life of 17-year-old Shakerria King was tragically cut short in a drive-by shooting at the Holiday Apartments in Natchez, Mississippi. King, who was pregnant at the time, and her unborn child both perished in the attack. Another individual was also wounded in the shooting. The incident was not a random act of violence but rather a grim chapter in a cycle of retaliation that had gripped the community.
The investigation into the shooting moved swiftly, and authorities quickly identified four suspects. Montreal Rashawn Brown, 17, Curtavius Dantrell Knight, 19, Nicholas J. McGrew, 21, and Carianta D. Allen, 17, all from Natchez, were arrested and faced a litany of serious charges. These included aggravated assault, drive-by shooting, and two counts of murder for the deaths of Shakerria King and her unborn child. Investigators believed the shooting was in retaliation for a previous homicide, which itself was thought to be a response to an earlier act of violence, highlighting a devastating pattern of street justice.
In the aftermath of the arrests, the legal process began to unfold. In April 2021, Carianta Allen was sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder for his role in King's death. Later, in February 2022, Montreal Brown was found guilty of second-degree murder for King's death and aggravated assault for the injury of the second victim. He was sentenced to a total of sixty years in prison, with forty years for the murder and twenty years for the aggravated assault.
