North Side woman pleads guilty to killing boyfriend as they drove to drug deal

A Pittsburgh woman who killed her boyfriend after he repeatedly threatened her with a gun pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter.

Brook Lynn Lank, 28, of the North Side will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Bigley on July 15.

Lank also pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse.

According to Assistant District Attorney Matt DiGiacomo, Lank and her boyfriend, Anthony Lofton, 22, of Pittsburgh’s Bedford Dwellings neighborhood, made plans to conduct a drug deal with another man on March 12, 2022.

That night, the prosecutor said, Lank and Lofton got into an altercation at her home over drugs and money. Video from the home showed Lofton push Lank to the ground and point two guns at her, saying he would shoot her, DiGiacomo said.

After the fight ended, according to the criminal complaint, Lofton took off with Lank’s rented Ford Taurus.

He returned to the house, and the two of them left around 5 a.m., DiGiacomo said.

As they drove together, the couple had another fight in the car, during which Lank took the gun off of Lofton and shot him, DiGiacomo said. She told police he continued to reach for her, so she shot him twice more.

Lank then met with the man they planned to see for the drug deal, the prosecutor said. The two then drove to Derby Alley in McKees Rocks where they left Lofton’s body.

Surveillance cameras tracked the vehicle to an Econo Lodge in Kennedy on Steubenville Pike where police found the car and spotted the man cleaning its interior.

Police found blood stains inside.

Lank told investigators she threw the gun away.