Who would want to kill 29 year old Marcus Brown?
In the weeks before his death, Marcus Lynn Brown was a man living with a heavy sense of dread. The 29-year-old, a Black man born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, had confided in those closest to him that he no longer felt safe in New Orleans, the city he had called home for the last five years. He told his sister he wanted to move away from the violence, and a week before he was killed, he told a friend he felt as though he was being watched or followed. This premonition was so strong that he gave his friend his sister’s phone number, just in case something happened to him.
Marcus grew up in a large family that moved to White Castle, Louisiana, when he was seven. He had known hardship; his mother suffered from a brain tumor and, though the surgery to remove it was successful, she was never the same and passed away in 2009. Two years later, Marcus moved to New Orleans. He didn't have a permanent address, often staying in motels or with friends, and struggled at times. A friend recalled him as often seeming sad, and noted that six months before his death, Marcus said that if anything were to happen to him, he wanted to be buried next to his mother.
On the night of Thursday, May 19, 2016, Marcus’s fears became a tragic reality. He was working at a Church's Chicken restaurant in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. Just before midnight, as his shift was ending, he walked out into the parking lot. According to police, an unknown male wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, with the hood pulled tight against his face, emerged from the darkness. The assailant opened fire, shooting Marcus multiple times before fleeing the scene. Marcus Brown died there in the parking lot.
The New Orleans Police Department responded to the scene, but the investigation that followed yielded few answers. The description of the shooter was vague, and a motive for the killing was not immediately apparent. There were no reports of a robbery, and the sudden, violent nature of the attack left investigators with few leads to follow. In the years since the shooting, the case has grown cold.
Marcus’s family and friends were left to mourn a man they loved while grappling with the unanswered questions surrounding his death. His funeral was held on May 28, 2016, and he was laid to rest in the Brazil Cemetery in Louisiana, next to his mother as he had wished. His obituary remembers him as a resident of New Orleans and lists his surviving great-grandfather, stepfather, three sisters, and three brothers. He was preceded in death by his parents, Toy Brown and Marcus Stewart.
As of today, the murder of Marcus Brown remains unsolved. No arrests have ever been made, and no suspects have been publicly identified beyond the shadowy figure in the gray sweatshirt. The case is still open, a painful and unresolved chapter for his family. The New Orleans Police Department has not released any new information in years. Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans offers a cash reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest and indictment in a homicide case. Their anonymous tip line can be reached at 504-822-1111.
