Video: Columbus Shooting Death

[bitsontherun i9aOBqNH]

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A 2012 Labor Day shooting death left a family in mourning and a community looking for answers. The victim’s relatives stopped by the station today to talk about the case and how hard it has been to move forward.

After shots rang out in a Columbus neighborhood, last year, 19 year old Alexander “Slugger” Brown lay in the street fighting for his life. His friends rushed him to the hospital, but he died from his wounds. Alexander would have turned 20 years old today, and his parents are still searching for answers.

Alexander’s mother Jackie Brown says, “He is still some body’s child. He’s our son and we loved him.”

Jackie Brown discusses her son, who was shot and killed last Labor Day. It happened on the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and 22nd Avenue, just before three o’clock that afternoon. Witnesses and police think Alexander ‘Slugger ” Brown was lured to that location after getting a phone call from a female friend. It was then the parties involved exchanged words and then gunfire.

Brown says, “Rick Higgins told us that he did receive a call from a young lady and that they had a young man in custody.”

After an investigation Columbus Police arrested then 19 year old Dominique Chambers and 20 year old Devin Thompson. Both were charged with murder. But when the case was presented to the Lowndes County Grand Jury, it returned a “No True Bill”.

Columbus Police Chief Selvain McQueen says, “The only thing that we can do is go out investigate the case, interview the people, present our findings to the grand jury and its up to the grand jury to as to wether they want to true bill it, no bill, remand it or pass it.”

But for the family the lack of someone being prosecuted and held responsible has been a tough pill to swallow. After the recanting of witness testimony and no further witnesses and evidence coming forward, the case seems to be at a stand still.

According to McQueen, “We’re nothing more than fact finders. We go out we interview, we collect evidence and we submit the evidence.”

For the Browns celebrating their sons 20th Birthday Day will be a tough. Their pain and sorrow has turned to anger. Answers can’t come soon enough.

Brown says, “You give people 25 to life for drugs but you’re letting them walk for murder.”

Both the Police Chief and District Attorney in the case say, if more evidence is found or witnesses willing to testify come forward they will again present the case to a Grand Jury.