'Cold-blooded murder': Mother fears street justice may take over streets of Killeen

Brownlow was fatally shot just after 10 a.m. Monday at the Star Mart convenience store in the 3600 block of Zephyr Road in central Killeen. The driver of the car Brownlow was in sped off to a nearby home on Becker Street, where police and emergency responders found three of the occupants of the car with gunshot wounds. The car had at least 10 bullet holes in it.

Brownlow was taken by helicopter to Darnell Medical Center at Fort Cavazos and the others were taken to area hospitals for treatment. Brownlow died at the hospital. Police have not provided updated conditions on the two people who were injured in the shooting.

Dees said she has seen videos of the shooting — videos that the Killeen Police Department are refusing to say exist.

After viewing two videos of the incident, Dees said she is still in shock, but more than that, she wants to know why the man in the videos that she says shot at the car, is still on the loose.

“It was all over a girl,” Dees said of Monday’s shooting. “And it wasn’t even my son that the shooter was targeting.”

According to Dees, the shooter was angry at another person in the car. She said the shots were aimed at someone else in the car, but not her son.

“And, the police have the video,” Dees said.

Interim KPD Chief Charles Kimble on Thursday would neither confirm nor deny if a video of the shooting existed and if police have reviewed the footage.

“I’m not going to talk about evidence in this case,” Kimble said.

Dees also gave the Herald the name of the person who she said shot her son. When the Herald gave that name to KPD spokeswoman Ofelia Miramontez, she refused to confirm the name or to say he was indeed a suspect.

“The police department does not discuss active investigations, unless, the release of the suspect’s name is necessary for the public’s safety or apprehension of the suspect,” Miramontez said in an email.

When the Herald replied to KPD that the shooter in this case apparently killed one person and injured two others in a public place in broad daylight, the interim chief called the Herald a few minutes later.

In the conversation, Kimble refused to say if KPD had a suspect or has watched any video of the shooting.

“I’m not releasing that information,” Kimble said in the phone call.

According to Dees, Sonny and his friends went into the store without speaking to the suspected shooter or his girlfriend, who accompanied him. It wasn’t until after Sonny and his friends left the store and got into the car that the shooting started, according to Dees.

“They were driving off,” Dees said.

Social media posts have been numerous, and Dees said her other sons have heard lots of things “on the street.”

“(He’s) telling people they shot at him first,” Dees said. “But, the windows of the car never came down.”

From photographs and witnesses at the scene on Becker Drive, the car had multiple bullet holes on the passenger’s side of the vehicle.

After the shooting Monday, the front glass door of the store was shattered as police investigated the scene in the hours afterwards. By Thursday, the glass in the door had been replaced.

Dees told the Herald that she has spoken to detectives with KPD and was told that they wanted permission to do the searches and gather additional information before submitting the case to the district attorney.

“They said it could take up to six months,” Dees said. “I want to know why no one has been arrested.”

Dees said the detective on the case told her he wanted to make sure to “dot all his I’s and cross all his “T’s.”

Video Evidence

While KPD is not publicly saying if there is any video evidence in this case, Killeen police have released videos related to shootings in other cases.

On Dec. 13, Killeen police released video of suspected robbers at the Angel Food Mart on Gilmer Street. The night before, during the robbery, one of the men shown in the video had shot at a clerk in the store, police said.

In January 2021, Killeen police released police body-camera footage of a fatal officer-involved shooting in the front yard of a Killeen home.

Investigators were still early in the investigation process when Kimble held a news conference to release the detailed video of the shooting, which claimed the life of a Killeen resident.

When asked why he won’t say if there is a suspect Monday’s shooting or confirm other things the mother is saying about the shooter and the shooting, Kimble said KPD and the detectives in the case have to be very careful with what they release during the investigation.

“We’re the ones who are going to testify — not her,” Kimble said. However, when pressed how he knew Dees would not testify in court, Kimble said he was not sure.

“I am not talking about evidence in this case,” he added, a phrase he used multiple times in the phone call.

April 8 shooting

Social media posts have questioned whether a Killeen fatal shooting which occurred April 8 on Atlas Avenue, killing Va’Quintin Maestre, is somehow related to Monday’s shooting, since the two victims knew each other well and the shootings were about a month apart.

“The boys were brothers-in-law,” Dees said. “Va’Quintin and my daughter were together for a long time.”

Dees has said that although the two deaths were unbearably hard, she doesn’t believe they were at all related.

Police have arrested two people in the April 8 shooting case.

Dees has set up a GoFundMe fage to help with funeral expenses for Brownlow at bit.ly/44VDnCH.

By late Thursday, it had raised about $750. The goal is $15,000.