More News

Just hours before his death, Maryland State Police trooper Wesley Brown was on the phone with a Seat Pleasant official, determined to prevent the same type of violence that would ultimately end his life.

Brown, 24, and city council President LaTasha Gatling discussed his ideas of having a youth summit in the city in July.

"All of this was for the youth, to keep them out of the streets," Gatling said.

On Friday morning, Brown, of Capitol Heights, was fatally shot in the parking lot of a Forestville restaurant where he was off-duty working at his part-time security job. A dispute over a customer's bill turned deadly when, investigators allege, the customer returned about a half-hour after Brown escorted him out, and shot him.

On Tuesday, a Prince George's County judge denied bond for one of the two men who have been charged in Brown's death, and denied a request by a county corrections department unit to move the man out of the county's jail.

At the bond hearing before Judge Jean Baron for Anthony Andre Milton II, public defender Dan Moskov said he would also file a written motion for a bail review.

Milton, 28, of 71st Court in Seat Pleasant, is being held at the Department of Corrections in Upper Marlboro. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 12 at the Upper Marlboro courthouse.

Responding to the request by the corrections department's Pre-Trial Investigations Unit to move Milton from the Upper Marlboro jail, Assistant State's Attorney Carol Coderre said, "Our detention center is perfectly capable of housing him prior to trial."

The county's last suspect in the killing of a police officer, Ronnie White, was found dead in his jail cell in Upper Marlboro one day after his arrest in the 2008 death of Cpl. Richard Findley. Ivey said there was not enough evidence to prosecute anyone in White's death.

As family and friends of Brown's and the many county youth he mentored still struggled to process the tragedy, county police announced Monday afternoon that Milton and Cyril Cornelius Williams, 27, of Seat Pleasant Drive in Seat Pleasant — whom police allege was the customer escorted out and the shooter — have been charged with first- and second-degree murder. A semiautomatic handgun was recovered as evidence.

In addition to the murder charges, Milton and Williams have been charged with first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

Williams is being held in Baltimore on an unrelated parole and probation violation.

"I assume they will be getting him down here as soon as possible," said Glenn F. Ivey (D), state's attorney for Prince George's County, on Tuesday.

Both Milton and Williams have had prior run-ins with the law.

According to Prince George's County Circuit Court records, Williams was on probation for drug charges at the time of Brown's shooting. In 2006, Williams pleaded guilty to both possession of 70 grams of crack cocaine and possession of marijuana more than 400 grams of marijuana with the intent to distribute. He was sentenced to five years in prison but was paroled in 2008.

Williams was also charged with the attempted murder of a police officer on Jan. 1, 2006, when revelers in his apartment complex fired rounds of bullets into the sky in celebration of the new year, a source close to the investigation said. One of the rounds hit a police car, prompting the charge, but it was dropped when a witness did not appear in court.

Milton was charged in April 2004 with first- and second-degree assault and use of a handgun in the commission of a violent crime after shooting his girlfriend in the leg, according to circuit court documents. Those charges were dropped after they both declared the shooting was accidental. That August he was found guilty of illegally carrying a handgun and reckless endangerment.

According to charging documents filed in Prince George's County District Court, Milton waived his rights and agreed to speak with investigators when he admitted to police that he and Williams participated in Brown's shooting death.

Police said they are not looking for additional suspects but continue to ask anyone with information to come forward.

Separately, police announced a public viewing of Brown will be from 4 to 9 p.m. Friday at Abyssinia Baptist Church, 4705 Addison Road in Capitol Heights.

A funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Jericho City of Praise Church, 8501 Jericho City Drive, Landover.

Hundreds attend vigil to honor, remember mentor

During a vigil Friday night, a crowd converged on a grass field outside Brown's Dateleaf Avenue home, forming a human chain to surround the immediate family, which huddled and buried faces wet with tears into each other's shoulders.

The trooper's death devastated Leonard Bellamy, 41, who lives on nearby Cedarleaf Avenue and watched Brown grow up in Seat Pleasant. Brown graduated from Temple Hills' Crossland High School in 2004 and attended Prince George's Community College in Largo to study criminal justice.

Bellamy called Brown a "homegrown" man who was never out of character.

"I'd rather look back on this like I came back from his wedding," Bellamy said. "I can't celebrate his death."

Seat Pleasant Mayor Eugene Grant said Brown, a Seat Pleasant native, was filled with compassion and that his home was a house of hope. He asked the crowd to pray for Brown's family and his fiancee, Ebony Norris. He and Norris were recently engaged to be married in 2011. Norris did not speak during the vigil.

"Some of you want to retaliate, but that is not what Wes would want you to do," Grant said. "That is not what he stood for. He was a man of peace."

The crowd included young men like Delonte Exum, 21, of Seat Pleasant, a member of a mentoring group Brown founded, Young Men Enlightening Younger Men.

"The only word to describe Wesley was beautiful," Exum said.

Brown started YMEYM in 2007 to provide trips and activities to keep neighborhood men occupied and off the streets.

During the weekend, several members were on a trip to New York City that Brown had planned.

YMEYM member Terrance Marshall, 18, of Seat Pleasant, said Brown had an "open door policy" and always made encouraging phone calls and sent texts to check on the young men in his group.

"You can't kill the group," Marshall said. "You can't do that. Even if Wesley is the founder."

Marshall credits Brown for encouraging him to seek higher education. He will start as a freshman at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park this fall.

"If it wasn't for him pushing me saying you need to do something with your life I wouldn't be here right now," Marshall said.

Brown's mother, Patricia Bell, said she drew strength from the community and thanked everyone for their sympathy and for supporting her son's dream of helping others.

"I thank God for the years that he allowed me to have with him because he truly was a gift of God," Bell said.

Brown's cousin Janet Brangman, 50, of Bermuda said Friday the family was in "utter shock" over Brown's death. Brangman, a former Washington, D.C., resident, said anyone who knew Brown knew how wonderful he was and how he was always committed to children, starting with the younger members of his family.

Brangman affectionately called Wesley Brown her "baby boy," being that she is the eldest cousin of about 40 and Brown is the youngest.

"Wesley was just a wonderful person and not because he was my cousin but because they don't make them like that anymore," Brangman said. "They don't make them like that anymore at all."

Brown's family is asking donations on his behalf be made to Young Men Enlightening Younger Men. Checks may be made out to Brown's older brother, Sylvester Brown Jr., with YMEYM in the memo line. Donations may be sent to Maryland State Police Barrack L - Forestville, 3500 Forestville Road, District Heights, MD 20747.

Trooper remembered

for giving back to youth

Seat Pleasant's Gatling called Brown's death was a "heartbreaking" loss to the community.

"His endless dedication to Seat Pleasant is just unspeakable," Gatling said. "He definitely encouraged me. I remember him saying just [June 9] when he called me, ‘We have to do something for our kids. I think together we can do something in this community.' He said, ‘Do you need anything? Let me know.'"

Gatling said the city plans to hold a memorial program for Brown at Holly Park at the end of Birchleaf Avenue but has not set up a date and time yet.

On Friday and through this week, Seat Pleasant City Hall flew the state and city flags at half-staff in remembrance of Brown.

"We're expecting to definitely honor him and the things that he did in this community," Gatling said.

At Crossland High School on Friday, several teachers and staff members who knew Brown sat around a table looking in disbelief at his senior photo in the 2004 yearbook.

Assistant Principal Stephanie Lyon, who said she is also close with Brown's sister, Janet Brown, recalled that Brown was always respectful to teachers and administrators and would mentor other male students when he was at Crossland.

"We've lost a role model for our young guys," she said. "He's what you call ‘a good guy,' and our guys need to know we have success stories, and now his life was cut short."

Security counselor Deborah Queen said Brown would visit her and other teachers and staff members he was close with a few times each year, and that he last visited about a month ago. She said Brown was known throughout the building for his "big smile."

"He just had that smile on," she said, remembering his most recent visit. Queen said that when she heard about what had happened, "I wish we had 1,400 more [students] like him."

According to the 2004 yearbook, Brown was a member of the varsity football squad — he wore jersey number 51 — and several teachers recalled that he used to talk about wanting to go into law enforcement.

Career counselor Sandra Craft said Friday that Brown came into her office in November to volunteer for the school's career day, which took place March 11. Although he had to leave the event early because he was needed on duty, Craft said his desire to volunteer was a testament to his commitment to work with young people.

"It's a loss to the community," she said. "For him to rise up through it all and then to be struck down in this way, it's not right."

E-mail Andrea Noble at anoble@gazette.net.

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.

Staff Writer Zoe Tillman contributed to this report.