District of Columbia
Related: About this forumWhen 5 teen girls allegedly beat her son to death, she kept his casket open
When 5 teen girls allegedly beat her son to death, she kept his casket open
As the trial in the 2023 beating death of Reginald Reggie Brown begins, his 90-year-old mother, Annie Mae Brown Mouton, seeks justice.
Annie Mae Brown Mouton, 90, holds a photo of her son Reginald Reggie Brown, who was beaten to death last year in the 6200 block of Georgia Avenue NW. He was 64 at the time. (Michael A. McCoy for The Washington Post)
By Keith L. Alexander
September 2, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
When Reginald Reggie Brown didnt return to his sisters home in upper Northwest Washington after a late-night walk, his mother and siblings assumed his weakened body had finally failed him.
At 64, Brown had battled lupus since he was a teen. He had recently recovered from covid-19. And he was undergoing treatment for cancer. But when the body of Annie Mae Brown Moutons youngest child was released to the family, the funeral director, stunned at Browns condition, advised against an open casket.
Police would ultimately arrest five girls ages 12 to 15 in a brutal, unprovoked beating of Brown last year. During the attack, cellphone video and nearby security cameras captured the girls kicking and stomping Browns head into the pavement, pulling his pants down around his ankles, and removing his belt and beating him with it, shouting in jubilation as he begins to bleed. The attack stunned the nations capital for its cruelty and for what it appeared to signal about the state of young people in a year that saw a generational spike in violence, with victims and perpetrators, officials said, seeming to grow ever younger.
Brown Mouton, now 90, instructed the mortician to do the best he could to reconstruct her sons face. But no matter the result, she was resolved to do as Mamie Till had for her son, Emmett, whose brutal 1955 murder galvanized the civil rights movement leave the casket open for the world to witness. I wanted everyone to see what happened to him, she recalled.
{snip}
Reginald Brown in an undated photo. He had suffered health problems since he was young, his family said, and was undergoing treatment for cancer. (Family photo)
{snip}
By Keith L. Alexander
Keith L. Alexander covers crime and courts, specifically D.C. Superior Court cases, for The Washington Post. Alexander was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that investigated fatal police shootings across the nation in 2015. Follow for updates @keithlalexander Twitter
hlthe2b
(106,047 posts)I would so love to say "unbelievable," but sadly we know it is.
Hate and more hate. And while TSF has nothing to do with this directly (as far as I know), his racism and hate have spread.
May there be a realm of peace and light for poor Reginald. You deserved so much better.
WhiskeyGrinder
(23,697 posts)Lonestarblue
(11,672 posts)Trump says violence is a necessary response to people who disagree with him, or do not vote for him. While some blame can be laid at Trumps feet, he shares that blame with many othersamong them a gun culture that values having guns everywhere over public safety, violent films and interactive games, constant news of police violence, social media where users encourage violence against others, and the deliberate political stoking of racial hatred.
There are days I feel as though this country has become the United States of Hatred. This sad story makes me wonder how we end this era of division and hate.
TommieMommy
(1,029 posts)2naSalit
(92,323 posts)Spend a lot of time in the corrections system.
aeromanKC
(3,464 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(60,665 posts)Ciara Wells | ciara.wells@wtop.com
September 3, 2024, 6:54 AM
Two of the five girls, ages 13 and 15, who are charged with first- and second-degree murder in the killing of Reginald Reggie Brown are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning.
While walking home on Oct. 17, 2023, Brown, 64, was attacked by five girls, ranging in age from 12 to 15, in the 6200 block of Georgia Avenue Northwest.
The girls, who were caught on surveillance camera footage, were seen kicking, beating and hitting Brown with his own belt. He was later found by police, unresponsive, and was pronounced dead minutes after he was found.
A 13-year-old suspect, who was 12 at the time of the unprovoked attack on Brown, sustained a gunshot wound in an unrelated incident inside her home in March 2024. It is unknown if she will appear in court Tuesday. ... One of the five girls accepted a plea deal in August and the last two girls are due before a judge in November, according to The Washington Post.
{snip}
Ciara Wells
Ciara Wells is the Evening Digital Editor at WTOP. She is a graduate of American University where she studied journalism and Spanish. Before joining WTOP, she was the opinion team editor at a student publication and a content specialist at an HBCU in Detroit.
ciara.wells@wtop.com