Crime & Justice

New Autopsy Report Reveals 2004 Death of Alonzo Brooks Was A Homicide

The death of Alonzo Brooks, whose body was exhumed in 2020 after Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries” series brought his case to the forefront, has been ruled a homicide.

Published

3 years ago

April 6, 2021

Unheard Voices Staff

Alonzo Brooks

The death of Alonzo Brooks, whose body was exhumed in 2020 after Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries” series brought his case to the forefront, has been ruled a homicide, federal authorities announced.

In 2004, Brooks went missing after attending a party. His body was found a month later in a creek. The official autopsy at the time didn’t determine a cause of death and the case eventually went cold.

“We knew that Alonzo Brooks died under very suspicious circumstances,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard in a news release. “This new examination by a team of the world’s best forensic pathologists and experts establishes it was no accident. Alonzo Brooks was killed. We are doing everything we can, and will spare no resources, to bring those responsible to justice.”

Table of Contents

Alonzo Brooks autopsy

His body was transported to Dover Air Force Base for examination by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner after it was exhumed, according to the news release from the Federal Bureau of Investigations Kansas City Division.

While the details of the examination are being withheld for investigative purposes, the new autopsy focuses on injuries to Brooks’ body that the examiner concluded are “inconsistent with normal patterns of decomposition,” according to the release.

The Case

Alonzo Brooks was 23 years old when he was found dead. He was one of only three Black men at a party in La Cygne, Kansas, that had about 100 guests, according to the FBI. He rode to the party with friends, but they left before him, leaving Brooks without a ride.

When he didn’t return home the next day, his family contacted the police who began searching for Brooks. It wasn’t until a month later, after a group of his family and friends organized their own search, that his body was found on top of a pile of brush and branches in the creek, according to authorities.

The official autopsy performed in 2004 didn’t determine a cause of death and Brooks’ case went cold.

But the case would take a promising turn.

In 2019, the Department of Justice and FBI reopened the investigation into his death. Additionally, the FBI announced in June 2020 that they were offering a reward of up to $100,000 to anyone who has information about Brooks’ death.

In July 2020, the FBI exhumed his body from his grave at a Topeka cemetery.

The FBI also added that his death was being investigated as a potential racially-motivated crime.

From the beginning of his case, there were rumors that Brooks was a victim of foul play.

“Some said Brooks may have flirted with a girl, some said drunken White men wanted to fight an African American male, and some said racist Whites simply resented Brooks’ presence,” the FBI said.

Brooks’ mother, Maria Ramirez, always maintained her son was targeted for his race.

“I’m Mexican and his father is Black,” Ramirez told NBC Dateline in June. “So he’s mixed. They didn’t just target one race. Or kill one race. They killed two. He was targeted because of the color of his skin.”

----------------------------------------------------------
Connect with Unheard Voices on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube

Download the app on Google Play or ITunes.
----------------------------------------------------------
Unheard Voices Magazine LLC is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Crime & Justice

Arrests made for fatal shooting at Delaware State University

Camay Mitchell De Silva was shot and killed on April 21 while visiting her best friend at Delaware State University.

Published

4 days ago

May 13, 2024

Unheard Voices Staff

Camay Mitchell De Silva (Photo Source: GoFundMe)

Authorities have announced arrests have been made for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Camay Mitchell De Silva last month at Delaware State University.

Table of Contents

Arrests made in Delaware State shooting of Camay Mitchell De Silva

De Silva was shot and killed by a stray bullet on April 21 while visiting her best friend who attended Delaware State University.

Police announced in a press release that 20-year-old Destry Jones and 18-year-old Damien Hinson, both from Dover, are being charged with the murder of Camay Mitchell De Silva.

The pair are also charged with the attempted murder of two other young men in connection with the April 21 shooting.

Jones was arrested in Brooklyn, New York and Hinson was arrested later that day in Dover, police said.

According to authorities, neither of the suspects in this case are enrolled at or affiliated with Delaware State University.

Police claimed Jones and Hinson were involved in a fight with two other men before shots were fired. Investigators do not believe De Silva was the intended target or involved in the altercation.

Beloved taken too soon

De Silva was a 2023 graduate of Concord High School who graduated with a 3.0. She spent her first semester of college at Morgan State University in Baltimore but decided she wanted to come home to Delaware.

She then attended Delaware Technical Community College and planned to attend DSU in the fall to pursue a degree in Computer Science, with the goal of working in cybersecurity.

Crime & Justice

Paramedic involved in Elijah McClain’s death sentenced to probation, work release and community service

Jeremy Cooper, a former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a fatal dose of ketamine, has been sentenced to probation and community service.

Published

3 weeks ago

April 28, 2024

Unheard Voices Staff

Elijah McClain's family to receive $15 million from the city of Aurora

Elijah McClain and Jeremy Cooper (CBS News)

Jeremy Cooper, a former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a fatal dose of ketamine, has been sentenced to probation and community service.

Table of Contents

Paramedic Jeremy Cooper sentenced

He had faced up to three years in prison but was sentenced to four years probation, 14 months of work release and 100 hours of community service.

Cooper and another paramedic, Peter Cichuniec, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in December in the death of McClain, 23, who was subdued by police and injected with ketamine on August 24, 2019.

Both paramedics had pleaded not guilty to the felony charges. Cichuniec was sentenced in March to five years in prison, the minimum.

Police stop turns fatal

McClain was walking home in August 2019 when the 23-year-old Black man was confronted by police officers who forcibly restrained him. When Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec arrived, they injected him with ketamine.

He went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance a few minutes later and died three days after that.

The McClain family sued the city of Aurora for Elijah’s wrongful death and received a $15 million settlement.

Crime & Justice

Honor student killed by stray bullet while visiting Delaware State University

A shooting at Delaware State University has claimed the life of 18-year-old honor student Camay Mitchell De Silva.

Published

3 weeks ago

April 26, 2024

Unheard Voices Staff

Camay Mitchell De Silva

Camay Mitchell De Silva, of Wilmington, Delaware, was shot and killed Sunday, on the Delaware State University campus.

The 18-year-old was visiting her best friend, a Delaware State student, when the tragic shooting occurred.

Table of Contents

She was an honor student

She then attended Delaware Technical Community College and planned to attend DSU in the fall to pursue a degree in Computer Science, with the goal of working in cybersecurity.

De Silva often hung out on campus with her best friend to get comfortable before attending DSU.

Delaware State shooting

The family said De Silva was visiting that friend at DSU on Saturday, April 20, and attended a party on campus that night. Around 1:40 a.m. on April 21, DSU Police received a report of shots fired on campus. The responding officers found De Silva in a residence hall suffering from a gunshot wound to her upper body. The officers administered aid and then took her to a nearby hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.

Police say De Silva was not the intended target. Dover Police Department Chief Thomas Johnson Jr. told NBC10 there was a dispute that she was not involved in and she was hit by a stray bullet.

The suspects were seen fleeing the area and no arrests have been made, said authorities.

Dover Police released a statement from De Silva’s family requesting time to grieve and to plan for her celebration of life.