There’s nothing more important than family. We only get one who sticks with us our whole lives.

Even those born into bad ones can make families from the friends they gain along the way and be loved unconditionally by them.

Our families protect us, and we do what we can even as kids to try and protect them.

There’s rarely a child who doesn’t daydream of doing something as kind for their parents as they did for them.

But sometimes, families need more than just help, more than justice as defined by the law.

When a family gets hurt, the hurt can last forever and be extreme. Losing a loved one to violence or crime is a tragedy.

It can be hard to move on for everyone knowing that a part of their life was stolen with so little reason. That’s when thoughts of revenge take root.

Vengeance belonged to Tityana Coppage on January 13th, just three days after the murder of her brother, when she found and killed his murderer before any legal action or trial could take place.





Jackson County Detention Center


10 /10 Hath No Fury

Tityana Coppage is a woman from Kansas City, Missouri. She was a strong woman who tried to help and lead her family as best she could as a young adult.

She was only 21 when she lost her brother – and it wasn’t the first loss her family had to come to terms with.

Her family was extended to several younger brothers with different last names but who she cared for equally and fervently.

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9 /10 Jayson Jr.







The brother she lost was Jayson Ugwuh Jr. He was a 16-year-old high school student who loved basketball and rap. He was a bright, cheerful kid despite knowing personal tragedies from mere years beforehand.

He was gunned down in public on January 10th while walking with some of his friends.

A car came up, opened fire, and then sped away. What provoked the incident remained a mystery. The only solid fact was that Jayson Jr. was the primary victim.



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8 /10 Kansas City Murders

Tityana and Jayson both endured a shocking loss back in 2016 when a drive-by shooting claimed the lives of her young brother Jayden Ugwuh and younger cousin Montell Ross.

The boys were just 9 and 8, respectively, at the time of death. Jayson was present for the shooting and held his little brother Jayden as he faded and died from the bullet wounds.

The killer was never found. Tityana was only 16 when the incident occurred, and it left her mentally changed.

7 /10 Keith Lars

The object of Tityana’s vengeance was Keith Lars. Just two days after the death and burial of her brother, she set out to gather as much evidence as possible to affirm the identity of her brother’s murderer.

She traced him as the car owner that carried the gunman who killed her brother and armed herself before they met. Lars didn’t go down quietly.

They exchanged gunfire, but Tityana came out alive and left Lars for dead in his car in the parking lot in the city’s northeast section.

6 /10 Means To Kill

Tityana was just an ordinary woman pushed beyond the brink to act.

She had already seen injustice win with the still-unsolved deaths of her young siblings, and she didn’t have enough trust in the system to properly avenge her brother’s death.

She assumed the guilt of Lars and got in contact with someone called “Auntie” to arm herself with a .45 pistol.

The fact that multiple gunshots were sounded seems to prove she was an amateur with a firearm. She was arrested shortly after and charged with murder.

5 /10 Last Goodbye

Evidence was quickly collected against Coppage, and she did not deny the charges.

She insisted that she got justice for her dead brother, even going as far as to text his cell phone to assure him that she was sending his killer to him.

At the time, no formal evidence was collected, or investigations were pending towards Lars as the suspect, though he was armed and did drive the same, or very similar, truck seen at Jayson’s murder scene.

4 /10 Community Crime

Coppage was spurred toward Lars by members of her community who seemed to indicate a shared but hushed knowledge of events that led to her brother’s death.

The police weren’t able to corroborate as much in their reporting. All anyone seemed to know was that Lars may as well have been guilty and could have had a criminal history of his own.

The extended family of the community, therefore, assisted Coppage’s vigilante act she grew up around.

3 /10 Potential Defenses

Coppage does not deny what she did or why and is charged with second-degree murder, which is murder without premeditation or planning.

By her admission, she fired her gun at the vehicle with Lars in it, but she claimed that he fired first and her weapon was meant for protection.

The fact remains that she was celebratory over his death, particularly over vengeance, meaning she went there assuming he was guilty and was armed to act.

2 /10 Last Words

Coppage contacted Lars before meeting to tell him she was coming to ask questions.

She claimed to call him to try and settle differences between him and her father, knowing that if she didn’t take action, he absolutely would.

Her self-defense case didn’t help with her initial charges, and she is held on a $200,000 bail bond for the act.

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1 /10 Solidarity

The cycles of violence and vengeance are an unfortunate part of many lives. Some of those who survive rise above it, while many are stuck in it for life.

Rap artists DaBaby and 42 Dugg made public posts on Instagram voicing solidarity and have reached out to pay $20,000 each of her bond as support.

What they see isn’t a directionless violent crime but a personal justice in an age where faith in authority is at an all-time low.

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