Ex-Patriot charged with killing mother
Authorities on Tuesday arrested former Patriots player Sergio Brown for allegedly killing his mother last month in Illinois, officials said.
Police in Maywood, Ill., said Brown, 35, was taken into custody in San Diego upon his return from Mexico.
He was charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of his mother, Myrtle Brown, 73, whose body was found Sept. 16 near a creek close to the Maywood home that she shared with her son, police said. The medical examiner’s office ruled that Myrtle Brown died from “multiple injuries due to assault.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Brown had retained a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. He is currently awaiting extradition back to Illinois from California, police said.
On Sept. 16, family members notified police that they couldn’t reach Brown or his mother, police said.
“It’s a sad but hopeful time, and we will all get through this together,” Sergio Brown’s brother, Nick Brown, wrote on Facebook on Sept. 17. “Mom always told me, ‘tough times don’t last’ and our last conversation about tough times being temporary is my beacon of hope. Mom, thank you for being strong, caring, diligent, fancy, funny, and for saving my art. I won’t let you down.”
That same day, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch wrote that he was “deeply saddened” to learn of Myrtle Brown’s death.
“This is a profound loss for our community and there are no words that will take away the pain so many are feeling,” Welch wrote. “Mrs. Brown was loved by many, and I’m personally better for having known her. I pray for swift justice so that her family, loved ones, and our community may begin to heal during this difficult time.”
Sergio Brown played seven seasons in the NFL as a safety, including two seasons with the Patriots in 2010 and 2011. His father was Mario Brown, the first Black men’s basketball player at Texas A&M in the 1970s.
In 2011, Sergio Brown told the Globe that his father “was the only person I knew that really got kicked out of a football game for being too loud.”
He said coping with his father’s death from cancer in 2002 was challenging.
“I look back on it a lot,’’ Brown said. “Not having my father, it got kind of heavy. But you just keep pushing through. I had to grow up fast and take on being a man early. So that transition had to happen real fast with me stepping up to the plate.”