DeKalb mourns slain sheriff-elect

Derwin Brown quickly became a hero.
On the day he was supposed to be sworn in as DeKalb County Sheriff, Brown was hailed as a fallen revolutionary, a doomed do-gooder who, as he walked to his front door carrying a bouquet for his wife, didn't deserve to die.
Brown was shot multiple times outside his Decatur home late Dec. 15. He spent the evening at a private party in a local club and then drove home, where he planned to meet friends, his wife and his five children. Police believe more than one gunman, armed with high-caliber semi-automatic weapons, caught up with him in his driveway.
As of Tuesday, the DeKalb Public Safety Department, which is investigating the shooting along with the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, had not identified a suspect. By that time, donations for information leading to an arrest reached $45,000.
"You don't just come into DeKalb and do something like this," said Eddie Moody, assistant chief of DeKalb Public Safety.
"We won't leave a stone unturned," vowed one employee of DeKalb Public Safety, where Brown worked 22 years before taking a leave of absence to run for sheriff.
By Tuesday morning, the DeKalb Probate Court handed out nine applications for an interim replacement for Brown. One man, Harol Hardy, submitted the complete application. The deadline to apply was 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Probate Judge Marion Guess said he plans to name the interim sheriff Friday, Dec. 22, for a term that begins Dec. 29. A special election for Brown's replacement is scheduled for March 20.
Brown promised jail reform and planned to fire 38 sheriff's office employees. He was a man who belonged to the ranks of "a long history of people calling for justice and being struck down," DeKalb CEO-elect Vernon Jones said.
Up until late spring, Brown wrote a weekly column for The Champion, a weekly newspaper in DeKalb. He blasted local officials on various topics, from low police pay to unjust treatment of African-Americans.
In a column printed in May of 1999, Brown urged readers to remember DeKalb police killed in the line of duty. Brown's family will accept visitors Wednesday, Dec. 20, at Trimble Mortuary. The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Dec. 21 at the Cathedral of Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Church.