MACON, Ga. — Neighbors mourned with the family of a man killed in his North Macon neighborhood.
Brian Brown was shot in the parking lot of Lokchapee Landing. The vigil was all about Brown and the impactful man he was in the neighborhood.
Several neighbors spoke about how grateful they were to have him as a neighbor. Susan Jolley is the president of the housing board. She said when everyone heard the news, they simply couldn't believe they'd lost him.
"It was crushing. I mean we all stood out here for 45 minutes not knowing who it was and when we found out, it just broke our hearts," Jolley said.
Brown was better known as Matt Brown to his neighbors. He died after leaving his home around 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
"This would never ever occur to us that this kind of violence would come from that, and that most of all the people that he would be the one that would be gone," Jolley said.
Jolley knew something needed to be done after she received plenty of emails from neighbors finding ways to support Brown's family.
"I just thought we're a close community a small community and if we could just all get together and express what we wanted to say about Matt and share those together that would be very healing for the community," Jolley said.
Altess Harris lives in the neighborhood. She is tired of hearing about the violence around their community.
"You know this needs to stop because it's happening within a two-mile radius of us. You know we're constantly hearing about it," Harris said.
Brown's vigil showed the strength of the neighborhood. His mom, Pam Brown, was grateful he was loved.
"I just want to thank all y'all for loving him because he loved you so," Pam said.
Pam asked her son why he wanted to live in a condo and not build his own home. He was known for his construction work and knowledge about upkeeping houses.
"He said well mama there's so many older people that live out here and I think I need to be here to help them," Pam said.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office is still looking for help in this case. They're searching for a silver SUV that was leaving the scene after shots were fired.
It's described as a crossover type with possibly an out-of-state tag. They're also trying to identify a person of interest who was seen in surveillance video walking through the parking lot.
If you have any information in this case you can call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.
More than a Number:
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More Than A Number is a Poynter-Stand Together award-winning project by Justin Baxley designed to help families of loved ones impacted by tragedy and trauma interact with journalists in a less intrusive way. Families are able to fill out a form about their family and also receive an in-depth guide on the next steps.
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