Dionte Breedlove, Armed Robbery and Shooting, Tennessee 2019

Dionte Breedlove, 26, of Nashville, is headed to federal prison for 355 months — nearly 29 and a half years — after being convicted of armed robbery and shooting an unarmed security guard during a violent heist at a West End Avenue Rite-Aid. The sentence, handed down Friday in U.S. District Court, closes a chapter on a brazen crime spree that terrorized employees and left a man permanently scarred.

Breedlove was found guilty in October 2019 after a week-long trial that exposed his role in two separate pharmacy robberies — September 14, 2017, and October 9, 2017 — both targeting the same Nashville Rite-Aid. During the second robbery, Breedlove, armed and masked, stormed the store, pointed a gun at employees, and ordered cash collected. When an unarmed security guard complied with his hands behind his head, Breedlove shot him in the chest at close range.

The wounded guard survived after emergency surgery and weeks in the hospital, but the bullet remains lodged in his spine — a permanent reminder of a random act of violence that altered his life. Breedlove then pressed the gun to the back of another employee’s head, threatening to fire if demands weren’t met. Cash was stuffed into bags with help from inside man Carlos Valcarcel-Arocho, 22, a Rite-Aid employee who coordinated the timing via text.

Valcarcel-Arocho, also of Nashville, was charged alongside Breedlove in August 2018 after FBI and Metropolitan Nashville Police Department investigators uncovered his role. Though he played victim during both robberies, surveillance and digital evidence showed he opened safes and registers before handing over cash. A search of his apartment turned up items linked to the crimes. He has since pleaded guilty to charges related to the October 2017 robbery and awaits sentencing.

Prior to these crimes, Breedlove had already served a six-year sentence for robbery — a case in which, at 18 years old, he also shot his victim. As a convicted felon, he was legally barred from possessing firearms, yet brought a loaded gun into the pharmacy and used it without hesitation. Prosecutors emphasized his pattern of violent recidivism during sentencing.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Philip H. Wehby and Sunny A.M. Koshy. U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee confirmed the sentencing, calling it a measure of justice for a crime that endangered lives and shattered trust in a neighborhood business. Breedlove now faces decades behind bars with no room for appeal.

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