Brittany Anne Brothers (Collier County Sheriff’s Office)
A 26-year-old woman in Florida was arrested last week for allegedly killing her boyfriend, fatally shooting him in the head while the two were playing a “game” with their guns inside her apartment. Brittany Anne Brothers was taken into custody on Friday and charged with one count of manslaughter with a firearm over the tragic slaying, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, authorities are alleging that Brothers on Sept. 2, 2023, killed the victim — whose name is redacted from the document — “without lawful justification or regard for human life” by shooting the victim “with the intent to cause death.”
Officers with the Hollywood Police Department at about 6:37 p.m. last Friday responded to a 911 call from a “frantic female” — later identified as Brothers — who told the dispatcher that her boyfriend had been shot and requested immediate assistance. Police said Brothers “made comments that she had money and would pay anything for her boyfriend to be ok.”
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found the victim lying on the floor in front of the dresser in the bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head. Brothers was holding the victim’s head and refused to leave the apartment. Police had to physically remove Brothers from the room to render aid before medical personnel with Hollywood Fire Rescue transported the victim to Memorial Regional Hospital where he was admitted in critical condition.
Brothers sat down for a voluntary interview with detectives at police headquarters.
“Prior to speaking with her, she made comments implicating herself as the reason [the victim] was shot,” police wrote in the affidavit.
She was allegedly heard saying, “Damn, what did I do?” and that the victim “would hate her for what happened.” Police said that at no time during the interview did Brothers actually admit to shooting her boyfriend, but noted that she again alluded to the fact that the victim “would hate her because his face was injured and that she hoped he would forgive her.”
She told police that she owned a Glock handgun while her boyfriend owned a handgun and several rifles. She claimed that the two of them had “previously played this game where they would point their guns at each other.”
“She knew not to play with guns and stated she should not have played [the game] back, because ‘this should never have happened,’” the document states.
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Brothers allegedly said that she was sitting on the bed while her boyfriend was at the foot of the bed and leaning against the dresser.
“[The victim] was holding his gun, pulled the trigger and stated, ‘this b—- almost went off,’” Brothers allegedly explained to police.
When the interview ended, Brothers spoke on the phone with her mother and allegedly said knew that “people who commit crimes have to do the time,” but also said she was “not built for that.” She ended the conversation with her mother by saying, “I’m sorry. I know that we aren’t supposed to play with guns,” per the affidavit.
While police were going through Brothers’ cellphone, she allegedly said she “wanted to take it back.” When asked what she was referring to, Brothers allegedly responded, “What had happened!”
Police found a spent shell casing under the bed at the apartment and said it matched the ammunition found in Brothers’ Glock.
Hospital personnel on Sept. 6 contacted police and informed them that the victim had succumbed to his injuries and died. The medical examiner conducted an autopsy and determined that the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head that entered through the victim’s right cheek from front to back. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.
“Based on the evidence, Brothers’s statements, and firearm analysis, it is reasonable to believe that Brittany Brothers was engaged in a reckless activity involving firearms resulting in [her boyfriend’s] death,” police wrote. “The Defendant’s admission to holding her firearm during the incident, coupled with the matching spent casing found at the scene strongly suggests she shot the victim.”
Brothers was arrested in Collier County and is now being held by authorities from Broward County.
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