DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey is dead 25 years after he was convicted of having his elected successor, Sheriff Derwin Brown, gunned down in front of his home.
Brandy Brown, Derwin Brown’s daughter, says the pain of that night has never gone away
“It will be heavy today, because, again, I have mixed feelings about it,” she told Channel 2’s Karyn Greer. “I had so many questions. I had a conversation that I absolutely wanted to have with him. And now I can’t.”
WATCH: The Hit: The Assassination of Derwin Brown
Dorsey made history in the ‘90s as DeKalb County’s first Black sheriff, but his legacy was permanently reshaped the night of Dec. 15, 2000, when Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown was ambushed and shot to death in his own driveway in Decatur
It happened just weeks before he was to be sworn into office after winning a runoff election over Dorsey.
RELATED: Sidney Dorsey, ex-DeKalb sheriff who had Derwin Brown killed, dies in prison
Prosecutors say Dorsey was angry over losing the bitter runoff and feared Brown’s pledge to clean up corruption in the sheriff’s office.
They say Dorsey ordered the hit on his successor, and a jury convicted him in 2002 of arranging the assassination. Dorsey was sentenced to life in prison plus additional years on racketeering and other related charges
“I think for me I wanted more information. For me, I’ve always said from day one that there was much more to the story,” Brandy Brown said. “There is much more the story that the public doesn’t even know that I do know.”
She said her family has lived for a quarter of a century with the trauma of that night and the weight of knowing her father’s murder was planned. Dorsey’s death has left her still asking questions.
“And now that he’s dead, what do you hope?” Greer asked.
“That he has been welcomed with open arms straight to hell,” Brandy Brown said.
She says her father’s murder was a bomb that detonated their family, and she said she still wants to talk to the others who were involved in her father’s hit. That may be the only way she can get closure, she said.
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