warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
In the Spring of 2019 a group of 20-somethings spent their weekends partying at friend’s house in east Detroit. On one of these nights the unthinkable happened.
Jokes and dancing turned into terror when a man in a mask burst through the door, armed with a gun, and began firing. The attack left three friends dead and the remaining two witnesses wounded.
Those that survived did not get a clear view the shooter. Nonetheless, they could point to one person who, they believed, could have a twisted motive to murder them all.
And they had met him, only hours before…
on friday , may 25th,2019, a group of friends in east detroit were partying at a friend’s house.it had been a night filled with noise and drama,drinks ,dancing,hookups, and arguments.
in the early morning hours,just five of the partiers were left in the house:blair keys, paris cameron, alunte davids,armon matthew and timothy blancher.
they were relaxed and winding down amongst the mess of the construction taking place in the house and the remnants from a night of partying.
the mood was laidback, and they were joking about the events of the night when they heard what they assumed must be fireworks going off by the front door.
through the door came a man wearing a mask,gun in hand,firing at the group indiscriminantely.the attack lasted only moments.
blair keys emerged from where he had fled into the bathroom to find his friends paris cameron and alunte davis wounded in the living room.
from the basement, armon matthews himself shot in the chest, did what he could to help another seriously wounded friend.
timothy blancher . from the other level of the house , he too placed a call to 911.
blair later recalled hearing over 20 shots while hiding in the bathroom.for those in his sight, the gunman had been unforgiving.
alunte had been shot twice.both timothy and paris had been struck four times.
when emergency responderes arrived on scene they found alunte in the dning room already deceased, similarly , despite armon’s best efforts , it was too late to save timothy.
paris was rushed to the hopsital for treatment .as an organ donor, she was kept alive for a time tough ultimately, she too passed away from her injuries.
20 year old paris cameron came out as gay when he was just 13.one year before the shooting paris began to identify as a trangender woman.
her good friends at the party that night were likewise out and proud.
timothy blancher ,or miami as his friends knew him,is remembered as a fun-loving and kind young man. he was close with his family , particularly his older brother,Devil.
21 year old alunte davis was known as just tay to his friends.his sister recalled,”he was silly he was full of life, he was helpful”
armon matthew recovered from the gunshot that he had sustained to his chest.
it had been a serious wound that had nonetheless first escape his notice while he desperately tried render aid to timothy.
blair keys was also forunate to esacpe the house that night alive.
there was two additonal partygoers that had spent most the most of the night at the house, though they left before the shooter arrived.
the homeowner, 29 year old lance atterberry, and brendan suttle who had only recently met and began dating armon.
when the shooting took place, these two were across the city at brendan’s home where they spoke with his mother and packed a bag with some belongings.from there ,they drove back to the house on devonshshire road.
when they arrived at the house, they were met with caution tape, ambulances,police cruisers, and horrific news…
neither blairnor armon was able to formally identify at the scene.a ski mask had covered all but his eyes.blair reported his complexion was light and his eyes were brown.
the man in the mask hadbeen visible for only a moment before he began firing.
yet the surviving partygoers had their suspicions.
early in the night,the group had made a quick to the BP gas station on the corner of devonshshire and Mac.
while they were there ,paris made a new friend.
at 2:40, a.m . ,paris and alunte entered the shop.paris was dressed in all black with a nike cap. alunte wore a camo style top and a hat as well.
lining up for the cashier behind and to the left was a young man who caught paris’s eye.he had entered the store only minute before, grabbed a juice from the cooler and stood in line.
after a moment or two of cntemplation, paris clearly made up her mind , and she broke free from alunte to speak with the young man at the doorway.
their interaction was off camera.
moments later ,the larger group entered.
blair led the way around the corner to the coolers, followed by alunte.timothy wore a pink tank top and was followed by paris.
what is curious is that the mystery man in the camouflage jacket and shorts.first paid for his drink and headed towards the door. there he paused to briefly chat with paris.then he began to leave the station.
cameras outside showed as he left , paris called out to him. there was no audio, but it seems that this prompted him to return to the store.
the group wascaptured inside the shop again.it was unclear exactly what was said. blair recalled only that paris was being overtly flirtatious.
as the group exited,they got into blair’s car, which had been parked around the side of the shop , just out of view of the external camera.
pulling out towards the road , paris leaned out the window and called after the young man once more. she gave him the address of lance’s house on devonshshire road.
the young man paris invited to the house party was 18 year old devon robinson. he had attended one of the same grades schools as armun years before, and he lived locally. only two blocks over,in fact , on buckingham.
20 t0 30 inutes after their encounter at the gas station,devon arrived at the house. he had accpeted paris’s invitation to the party.
heavy levels of intoxication go some way to explaining what happened next.
when devon first arrived, he said little,but in a very short span of time, he found himself upstairs in the master bedroom with paris. and then with others.
the intimate activites taking place in that bedroom were not a secret in the house.on the contrary,as events transpired,there were jokes made openly and loudly.
they called devon a trade. a man who presented as straight but nonetheless liked other men. that devon was on the down low might have sparked more concern.
but the haze of a house party at 3:00 a.m. that danger just didn’t register.
the survivors of the house party detailed to investigators what had transpired with devon in the house and the partners he had been intimate with over that short period of time.
the investigation then sought to piece together the 18 year old’s movements after first encountering the group at the gas station through to the time of the shooting.
they did so by linking camera footage from across the neighborhood.
after receiving his invite to the house party , they tracked devon walking back towards his house on buckingham. what they found was that on his way, he routinely paused,backtracked as though he wanted to return to the group.
then he would turn around and carryon.eventually ,he made his way over to devonshshire.
he was at the house on devonshshire for approximately an hour.most of that time spent in the master bedroom.
the same external BP station cameras cought his trip home after his activities at the house party.he stopped at the shop once more,but this time cameras captured him pacing in front of the door, spitting onto the ground,leaning over and gagging.
devon then entered the store and purchased another drink.by 4:02 a.m., he had returned home.the shooting took place less then an hour later.
after determining devon robinson’s adress,officers arrived at his home on buckingham to find that he and his mother, had inexplicably moved out of the house the day after the murder.
a roomate who remained there said only that they left in hurry.
police released images of devon to the media and asked for the public’s help in locating him .
it took over a week,but an anonymous tip was received that led detroit PD to a house on the other side of the city.
they arrested devon robinson with the intent to charge him for three counts of intentional homicide.when the 18 year old sat down with detectives,they began by laying all of their cards on the table.they knew he was the shooter.they said.
they knew what had transpired earlier in the night that had caused him to snap.
detectives told devon that if he opened up,they could be his advocate to the prosecutor’s office.t they lied further when they told him that his DNA was found all over the scene.
at that time ,devon conceded that he had spent time with paris in the master bedroom,but he refused to admit being with any of the other men.however,the only DNA of his that investigators had managed to retrieve was on timothy.not paris.
devon admitted to detectives that he was a closeted gay man.he was on the down -low.
he did not admit to murder.
devon was confronted with the video evidence and pressured further.
the same doorbell camera that had captured him returning home at a few minutes after 4:00 also captured a dark figure leaving his house just under an hour later at 4 :53.
a camera across from the house on devonshshire road capture the front steps of the property.unfortunately, this camera was motion activated and sensitive to light.it did not capture the shooter entering.
it did however ,capture the shooter in dark and blurry footage running from the house following the attack.
then , someone was captured returning to the house on buckingham at 5:01 a. m . only a few minutes after the shooting.
the distance between the houses was only a /4 of a mile.it could be walked in 4 to 5 minutes. someone running was likely to cover the distance in only three.
this meant tht the footage og both houses aligned with the same dark figure making the trip, committing the murders and returning nearly down to the second.
devon robinson pleaded not guilty and awaited his day in court. his family stood by him.
throughout multiple phone calls recorded from the county jail, devon analyzed the case against him.he speculated that the state did not have the amount of evidence that they claimed.
notably, on these calls ,he never pleaded his innocence.
he did not restate his alibi that he was at home with his mother when the shooting occured.he never speculated as to who the figure could have been leaving his house right before the murders and returning immediately after.
his mother , who was in a romantic relationship with another women,nontheless expressed frustration over media reports that her son was secretly gay.
there was also discussion of devon’s case in comparison to his brothers who pled out on his charges due to a codefendant that was threatening to testify against him.
the trial took place in march 2020.
blair keys told the jury about the house party,in particular ,how devon was behaving.quiet, emotionalist, and cold.
blair had cncerns that night about inviting him back to the house in the first place.
the defense’s case relied on the inability of the two eyewitnesses,blair and armon,to formally idntify devon as the shooter.though in the time that had passed since the murders,blair had amended his statements.
at trial,he told the jury that he did in fact get a clear enough look at the shooter to make an identification. he testified that devon robinson was the killer.
armon matthews recounted how he grabbed timothy and ran down the stairs to the basement when the attacker began firing.he did not see the shooter as the two attempted to flee to safety down the stairs.
devon robinson’s defense was weak. the cameras tracked to the movements of the shooter which had aligned with someone coming and going from his house.
there was never an alternative theory presented to account for these movements.
either an explanation of where devon had been during that window of time,if not the murder scene, or even a suggestion that the figure in the camera was simply someone else.
devon did not take the stand.
the jury returned with their verdicts across all counts.devon robinson was sentenced to three life terms without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.
10 to 20 years for two counts of assault with intent to murder, and 2 years consecutively for felonies with a firearm. 10 counts in total.
devon appealed his conviction on the grounds that there had been insufficient evidence to identify him as the shooter.
that appeal was not successful.
in april 2025,the michigan supreme court ruled that mandatory life sentences for individuals under the age of 21 are a harsh and disproportionate punishment.
young convicts such as devon were able to retroactively seek resentencing. at the time of publication,devon’s record shows that he is serving his time at the chippewa correctional facility in michigan.
his earliest release date is listed as june 2nd, 2056.