BATON ROUGE — A 19-year-old woman, who police say was dealing drugs, was fatally shot during a July robbery by someone pretending to be a customer, East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office records show.
An 18-year-old man has been arrested in Tre’asure Neal’s death and two juveniles are also suspects in the crime, according to arrest records.
Cydrin Porter was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on Thursday with first-degree murder and armed robbery.
Neal called 911 herself about 4:30 p.m. on July 13 to report that she had been shot at 12400 Jefferson Highway. Police found her sitting in her 2018 Maserati Q4. She was unresponsive and had a gunshot wound to her chest, Porter’s arrest warrant said.
Neal died from her injuries on July 19.
According to a warrant, detectives found loose, unmarked pills and blister packs of Tapentadol pills in Neal’s car. Her family members later found a cell phone in the car they said didn’t belong to Neal or them.
Searches of several phone accounts and email accounts discovered on Neal’s phone, watch and tablet led investigators to conclude the crime was a drug deal Neal set up that turned into a murder.
Surveillance video from the apartment complex the day of the murder showed three people heading in the direction of Neal’s car shortly before the shooting.
The warrant indicates that one juvenile was arrested in the crime on Aug. 7 and that investigators believe his phone was the one found in Neal’s car after she was shot.
Another juvenile was arrested on Aug. 13. He cooperated with police and explained that allegedly, none of the people involved had any money to buy drugs from Neal. They planned to rob her, according to Porter’s arrest warrant.
The juvenile who was arrested first allegedly handed his phone to Neal so she could enter some payment details. Another member of the group used the distraction as an opportunity to pull a gun on Neal to rob her, the warrant said.
Investigators say group didn’t expect her to have her own gun. She grabbed her own silver revolver and one of the attackers tried to take it away from her. The attacker who had initially pulled his own gun then shot Neal and the three assailants left, taking Neal’s gun with them, the warrant said.
Investigators later found the gun at the home of one of the juveniles, the warrant said.
Porter was identified as a suspect after investigators searched the cell phone records of the juveniles and others, per the warrant.
Due to their age, further information about the juveniles was not available.
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