In the five years since Eugene “Bud” Brown Jr. was killed, his mother, Corliss Lewis says she still hasn’t accepted that her son is gone or that no one can seem to explain how he ended up face down on the 1900 block of Second Avenue.
On Sept. 10, 2016, around 3 a.m., a passerby discovered a man’s body lying face down in the road and called 911. Richmond County deputies and Gold Cross EMS were called to the scene but reported no signs of life, according to the coroner’s report.
Deputies identified the young man as Eugene Brown Jr., 23, by a driver’s license found on a lanyard worn around Brown’s neck.
Upon examination, Deputy Coroner Albert Boudy Jr. observed several shell casings on the ground and at least three gunshot wounds in Brown’s body, according to his written report. The location of the wounds indicated that whoever shot Brown did so from behind.
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Lewis said in the days that followed, she remained in disbelief that her son was the man found that morning on Second Avenue. She did not recognize any of the names deputies asked her about in relation to her son, nor could she explain why he would have been in a part of town that, to her knowledge, he never visited.
In fact, according to Lewis, her son recently moved from the area and was not supposed to be in town at the time he was killed.
According to Lewis, after high school, Brown began doing disaster relief work. He would travel to different cities, helping to clean up and rebuild after storms and other natural disasters.
With the exception of a speeding ticket, Lewis said her son stayed out of trouble and close to his family. Brown was the father of two little boys and had a daughter on the way before he was killed.
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Brown’s family remembers him as a bright, kind-hearted man who never met a stranger.
“If anything, he was too trusting,” Lewis said. “He believed that everyone was a friend, but that’s not reality. He didn’t know how to decipher that.”
After his death, one of Brown’s friends reached out to Lewis to tell her about a strange call from Brown just an hour before he was killed.
According to his friend, Brown used someone else’s phone to place the call, and it was clear that something was wrong. Brown needed a ride, but it would be a while before his friend could get there.
Unfortunately, it would take too long. Before they could make it downtown, Brown’s friend got a call saying that he had been shot and killed.
For a while, Lewis said she would hear unbelievable and conflicting theories about what happened to her son in his final hours.
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Some speculate that Brown was gambling earlier that night, and someone shot him in an attempt to rob him of his winnings.
Another theory surfaced that perhaps Brown had been involved in buying or selling drugs and had a run in with someone that cost him his life.
Investigators never found any evidence to support those theories. No money or drugs of any kind were found on Brown, according to the coroner’s report.
Perhaps the truth rests with the person whose phone Brown borrowed in those final moments, but Lewis said she does not know if investigators have even spoken to that person.
“I told them that if they can’t say someone is under arrest, then I don’t want to know,” Lewis said. “I have strong faith, and I believe it will happen when it’s supposed to, but whoever did it needs to pay for what they’ve done. They stole my son and acted like he was nobody.”
While Lewis leans on her faith to manage the loss of her son, she was adamant that justice will not be served unless the community starts talking.
“People would come out more if it was a police officer or different race that killed my son,” Lewis said. “When it’s Black on Black, people take sides, and that’s not right.”
Anna Porzio is a correspondent with The Augusta Press. Reach her at anna@theaugustapress.com.
