'He was my sweet, kind love bug:' Ventura Councilwoman Lorrie Brown's son dies in Florida
The 22-year-old son of Ventura Councilwoman Lorrie Brown died Thursday in Florida.
Jeremiah Emmanuel Jordan Brown died of an apparent carjacking and homicide. Lorrie Brown confirmed his death on Friday.
She said her son was on vacation with his family, staying in an Airbnb in Davenport, Florida, a small town about 35 miles southwest of Orlando. They were celebrating a milestone in his girlfriend's nursing program. The family had rented a Mercedes and drove six hours from Georgia to enjoy their time.
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Jeremiah Brown was born and raised in Ventura and went to Montalvo Elementary, Anacapa Middle and Buena High schools. After graduation, he initially worked as a welder but switched to forklift driver when welding classes were overenrolled.
He moved to Atlanta at 19 and worked as a certified forklift driver, his mother said. She would take trips to visit him and his girlfriend and her two children. Jeremiah Brown was a father figure to the children.
"I'd come out and check on them, spend time with them, visit the grandkids," she said.
She learned about her son's death early Thursday from Ventura police officers who had been contacted by detectives from the Osceola County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
Sheriff's deputies had responded to reports of an unresponsive man in the Davenport area. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital and pronounced dead, sheriff's officials said.
"Our great officers from the city graciously came to my house and knocked on my door and sat me down at 3 a.m. and broke the news to me," Brown said. "It was devastating to know that my baby boy was gone."
She declined to get into specifics about what happened because Osceola County detectives continue to work on the case, and she did not want to impede the investigation.
Jeremiah Brown loved anime and specifically the character Goku from Dragon Ball. As a believer in God, Lorrie Brown said she thinks her son is now a guardian angel in the form of Goku who makes a loud noise to gain power and energy to help people, she said.
"He can now protect and defend me from the other side," she said.
Lorrie Brown said she last spoke to her son a couple of weeks ago and was making arrangements to see him and his family.
Now, she is in the process of making funeral arrangements as she awaits the return of Jeremiah's remains to California.
Jeremiah Brown leaves behind his mother, father Darnel McDuffie, five brothers Joseph Brooks, Isaiah Young-Brown, Darnell McDuffie Jr., D'Angelo Joseph McDuffie and Draven Lopez McDuffie, his girlfriend Lexington Daugherty and her children.
Lorrie Brown said the death of her son has made the national issue of gun violence hit home.
"It really makes me question the whole idea of property over life and the whole idea that someone believes that someone else's property and what they possess is more important than their life and who they are," she said.
Since his death, Lorrie Brown has received a lot of texts from her son's friends. Looking at them on Friday, she said they described him as a very kind, sweet, thoughtful and clever young man.
"He was my sweet, kind love bug," she said. "He will always be my love bug and I will miss him."
Breaking news editor Gretchen Wenner contributed to this report.
Wes Woods II covers West County for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at wesley.woodsii@vcstar.com, 805-437-0262 or @JournoWes.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura Councilwoman Lorrie Brown's son dies in Florida
