Man Gunned Down Friend At Strip Club Party The Same Day He Was Released From Prison

A man who fatally shot his friend outside a prison release party at an Atlanta strip club — hours after he finished serving an eight-year sentence — is headed back to the clinker. 

David Robinson, 34, had just spent nearly a decade incarcerated on an armed robbery charge when police say he gunned down Jala Ross-Beyah, 29, in the parking lot of a gentlemen’s club while the man parked his Dodge Ram pickup truck. 

Robinson was convicted of murder and two counts of firearm possession. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus an extra 15 years, in connection with the incident.

On October 14, 2017, Robinson, Ross-Beyah, and another friend, 30-year-old Niqua Brown, arrived at an Atlanta strip club to celebrate Robinson’s release from prison, according to a police press release.

Robinson, without warning, “suddenly opened fire” on Ross-Beyah while the man was pulling into a parking space, according to a police report obtained by Oxygen.com. Robinson reportedly blasted his friend twice — once in the back of the head, and a second time in the neck. He died instantly.

As the truck, still in reverse, collided with a wall, Robinson proceeded to fire his pistol at Brown, the vehicle’s third occupant, in the backseat. Brown sprang from the truck and ran to safety.

“Robinson also got out and continued to try to shoot [Brown] but seemed to be out of ammunition,” the police report stated. 

Robinson attempted to flee by climbing a fence, but he was apprehended after it collapsed under him.

Brown told investigators Robinson was a childhood friend he had known for “several years.” It’s still unclear why Robinson murdered his friend. 

Detectives said that Robinson was possibly high or drunk at the time of the parking lot shooting. 

“Obviously, the eight-year stay by this defendant served no meaningful purpose” said Paul Howard Jr., Fulton County District Attorney, in a statement to Oxygen.com.

“As we struggle in this country with important criminal justice issues, none is more critical than the subject regarding approximate lengths of incarceration,” Howard Jr. added. “This senseless death here in Atlanta perhaps provides a small window allowing us to see it is the quality of the rehabilitation or prison stay as opposed to the quantity or length of jail stay that should remain paramount to our communities.”

Robinson has six prior felony arrests and convictions, and in the mid-2000s, was found guilty of aggravated assault and uttering terroristic threats. He was nabbed on armed robbery charges in 2009 and spent eight years in prison.