MAURICE BROWN Jr - 3 yo - Memphis TN

The search is on for a 3-year-old Memphis boy who was missing from his home when his father awakened from a nap. The Memphis Police Department said Maurice Brown Jr. is a black child
with a medium complexion, a low hair cut and was last seen wearing a
blue Batman shirt and blue jeans.
Police said the boy's father
told them he fell asleep and woke up Sunday at around 10:30 p.m. to
discover Maurice was missing.
Police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said authorities were using a helicopter and K-9 units to search for the boy.
Information should be phoned to the missing person number at (901) 636-4479.
http://www.newschannel9.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.tn/25466bab-www.newschannel9.com.shtml
Memphis police continue to search for a 3-year-old boy reported missing Sunday near Pauline and Peabody.


Maurice Brown Jr.'s father reportedly fell asleep and awoke to find
the boy missing from 347 S. Pauline, according to a City Watch alert
issued by Memphis police. Reported about 10:25 p.m., Maurice may have
been missing since at about 8:30 p.m., according to police.


He is described as a 3-foot-tall, 65-pound black child with a medium
complexion and low-cut hair. He was wearing a blue Batman shirt and blue
jeans.


Anyone who has seen Maurice is asked to call Memphis police missing persons at (901) 636-4479 or police at (901) 545-2677.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/jul/02/memphis-police-continue-search-missing-3-year-old/

3-year-old boy vanishes from home and his dad fears a rival gang took him
Memphis dad and admitted affiliate of a gang called the Grapestreets says that he was asleep at home when his son disappeared. A second child is unharmed.

BY MICHAEL SHERIDAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
MONDAY, JULY 2, 2012, 3:01 PM

A 3-year-old boy vanished from his home Sunday night, and his dad fears he was kidnapped by rival gang members.

Police are now combing Memphis for Maurice Brown Jr., who went missing around 8:30 p.m. from his home on South Pauline Street.

The 3-foot-tall, 65-pound child was last seen wearing a Batman shirt and blue jeans.

His father, Maurice Brown Sr., is affiliated with a gang called the Grapestreets. He said he was asleep in the house and awoke to find the boy gone.

"I searched the house and he was nowhere to be found," he told Action News 5.

"[I] got in my car, drove around the block and called the police," he said.

Maurice Sr. believes it’s possible that his enemies may have abducted his son as retaliation.

"There's a lot of people that know me, there's a lot of people that hate me," said the boy's father.

Maurice Sr. also noted that whoever took his son also stole a bath towel.

"I had a bath towel where I cut my finger at," he told Action News 5.

"I love him to death," he added. "He was happy kid, never did nothing to nobody, he never did nothing to nobody."

Memphis police are asking that anyone with information about Maurice Jr. call (901) 545-COPS.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/3-year-old-boy-vanishes-home-dad-fears-a-rival-gang-article-1.1106483#ixzz1zVEauQgF

why do gang members and dopers put their children at risk like this. if this baby was really kidnapped, which i doubt, why put him in this situation? so selfish

Father of Missing 3-Year Old Boy Charged with Child Neglect

Reported by: Marcus Holliday, Email: mholliday@abc24.com
Published: 8:16 am
Updated: 8:00 pm

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (abc24.com) - The father of a missing 3-year-old Memphis is sitting behind bars. Evidence shows that the child could have been seriously injured or even killed.

Police said the boy's father told them he fell asleep at their home on S. Pauline Street near Peabody Avenue and woke up Sunday at around 10:30 p.m. to discover Maurice Brown, Jr. was missing. The father is also an admitted gang member and told police his son's disappearance could be related to his gang affiliation.

"You don't want to hear anything like that. I hope no gang member got his child," said their next-door neighbor, Sharon Toole. She said whoever has him must know him. "He's a shy baby. He doesn't talk to strangers. I can't even get him to talk to me and I live right next door."

Maurice Brown was later booked at the Shelby County Jail just before 6:30 p.m. on Monday, July 2 for Aggravated Child Neglect. According to the affidavit, a witness saw the father leaving his apartment with a child draped over his shoulder. Police searched the apartment and found blood all over the bathroom consistent with blunt force trauma.

The child has not been found, but investigators believe he suffered serious bodily injury.

http://www.abc24.com/news/local/story/Father-of-Missing-3-Year-Old-Boy-Charged-with/4vkSdVwU2UG1N3zmTsDs5Q.cspx?rss=59

oh no....not again

@AHammond_WREG3
BREAKING: Body found downtown. Concern that it is missing 3 year old Maurice Brown Jr. @3onyourside is live on scene http://pic.twitter.com/M2Hxd4GY
1:55 PM - 3 Jul 12

Body Found

Posted on: 2:11 pm, July 3, 2012
by Leslie Isbell

(Memphis) A body is found in a dumpster in Downtown Memphis.

It was found at Vance and Able around 1:30 Tuesday.

Police are not saying if it is the body of 3-year-old Maurice Brown, Jr.

He was reported missing Sunday night by his father.

Maurice Brown, Sr. was arrested yesterday and charged with aggravated child abuse.

We have a crew on the scene and will bring you live reports all through the day on WREG News Channel 3.

http://wreg.com/2012/07/03/missing-3-year-old-boy-found/

imo opinion, the dp should b standard in cases like this and many others. i cannot even imagine any mitigating circumstances where a child is concerned.

Police director Toney Armstrong is expected to hold a news briefing shortly.

http://wreg.com/2012/07/03/missing-3-year-old-boy-found/

Live stream: http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/category/239213/live-stream

updated on: 03:05pm, July 3, 2012

(Memphis) Memphis police say the body of a male child has been found in a dumpster near Downtown.

Police are not saying if it is the body of missing 3-year-old Maurice Brown, Jr.

Read more: http://wreg.com/2012/07/03/missing-3-year-old-boy-found/

MPD Director Toney Armstrong Tuesday said the body of a small child
found in a dumpster is that of missing three-year-old Maurice Brown, Jr.

Armstrong said he has not upgraded charges against the child’s
father, Maurice Brown, Sr., who is in jail on charges of aggravated
child neglect or endangerment. He is being held on a $1 million bond.

It is possible for more serious charges to come soon, as the
investigation develops. Armstrong said it is unknown whether other
suspects may be involved.

“I ask that you continue to pray for this family, as they try to deal
with the tragic circumstances surrounding this child’s death,”
Armstrong said.

The exact details will take some time to figure out, but police are
starting to piece together evidence from both the dumpster, near Vance
Avenue and Abel Street near downtown, and from Brown’s apartment in the
300 block of South Pauline Street in Midtown.

“As the father of a small child, I certainly can’t even begin to
imagine what could prompt somebody, or trigger somebody, to not only
react violently to a small, three-year-old child, but to dispose of the
body in such a manner…he’s just unimaginable,” Armstrong said.

The cause of death is still unknown. Police are awaiting a report from the medical examiner.

The child was discovered when police expanded the search area on
Tuesday. An officer from the South Main station came upon the child when
checking that dumpster.

News Channel 3 called LaToya Kaeneh, the boy’s mother, to tell her
about the crime scene at about 2:00p.m. Later Tuesday, Kaeneh said her
heart was heavy and that she was too exhausted to speak on camera.

On Monday, she said that Maurice Brown was fully responsible for whatever happened to their son, “Junior.”

“I was devastated. I was shocked. I couldn’t even believe that my son was gone,” Kaeneh said.

Kaeneh had brought Junior to Memphis from Arkansas in May so he could be with his father for the summer.

Brown also has a one-year-old son with his current girlfriend. The child is now with her.

Lenora Page, Junior’s maternal grandmother, was very upset Monday
night, and predicted Brown’s involvement with her grandson’s
disappearance.

Page alluded to a violent past: “Maurice was getting angrier and angrier. And I told Toya.”

She may be referring to the time Brown may have beat Kaeneh on
Valentine’s Day of 2010, according to an affidavit. Those charges were
dropped, but the memory of violence remains.

Page grew emotional, learning of the blood spattered all over the bathroom of Brown’s apartment.

“Maurice, Maurice, how could you do this? How could you do this to your baby?” she said.
http://wreg.com/2012/07/03/missing-3-year-old-boy-found/

It was heartbreaking news to people who lived in the same apartment complex as three-year-old Maurice Brown Junior.
“It bothers me because kids don’t do anything to anybody,” Don Boyd
said. “It’s just sad day in Memphis for something like that to happen.”

News spread quickly that the young boys body was found a short
distance away in a dumpster. People who knew the child had prayed for a
different outcome after he was reported missing by his father Sunday.

“I was hoping they would find him alive and he would be okay,” Arlita Walker said.

“He was a sweetheart to everybody,” Aaliya Johnson said. Johnson
thinks she may have been the last person to see Maurice alive. She
heard he was found dead shortly after giving a statement to police.

“I just started crying because it’s a shame,” she said. “Hes’ three I mean it’s just shocking it is.”

Police say neighbors, like Johnson, were a helpful part of the
investigation that lead to the arrest of the child’s father Maurice
Brown Senior. One neighbor reported seeing Brown carrying a child over
his shoulder on Sunday night. He has since been charged with aggravated
child neglect.

“From what we found everybody who knew anything was more than willing
to provide that information to us,” Memphis Police Director Toney
Armstrong said.

For those who live by the dumpster where the child was found Tuesday afternoon they were sickened by the discovery.

“I feel bad for throwing garbage in the garbage last night because he
could have been in there,” one woman said wiping a tear from her eye.

Police have not said who threw the child in the dumpster, but people
who know the child, hope whoever did will be held responsible.
http://wreg.com/2012/07/03/neighbors-react-to-child-found-in-dumpster/

A Memphis funeral home is offering its services to relatives of a
3-year-old boy whose body was found in a large trash bin after he was
reported missing by his father.

Andre Jones, director of operations for R.S. Lewis Funeral Home, tells The Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/M7mB4H) that the family visited the business Wednesday but did not make a decision on which funeral home to use.


Police said Maurice Jones Jr. was found in a trash bin Tuesday, about
1 mile from where he was staying with his father, Maurice Brown Sr.


The father reported him missing Sunday night, saying he woke up from a nap to find his apartment door open and his son missing.


After investigating, police arrested Brown Sr. and charged him with
aggravated child neglect or endangerment. He is being held on $1 million
bond.


Jones says offering the funeral home's services is a way to help the
community. A funeral for a small child would cost more than $3,000, he
said.


"Children don't ask for this, it just happens and it's just a tragic
situation and we want to help in the family's time of need," Jones said.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/05/funeral-home-offers-services-to-boys-relatives/

Funeral services took place Saturday for the toddler police say was killed by his own father.
Hundreds gathered to say goodbye the child tragically beaten to death and found in a garbage dumpster.

Just a few feet long, 3-year-old Maurice Brown Junior`s casket was wheeled inside his funeral service Saturday.

His mother and other family members line up to see the toddler one last time.

“Only God knows the pain that I feel inside,” said the child’s mother, Latoya Page Kanneh.

Pain after police found the toddler`s body tossed in a dumpster,
badly beaten and now his own father, Maurice Brown Sr., is charged with
his murder.

“I’m not going to think about anything, but the good memories that I had with Junior,” said Kanneh.

“He had the brightest smile, contagious laugh, always happy and full of spirit.” said Junior’s aunt, Princess Page.

Junior`s step father, Joseph, could barely hold back tears, “He`s the son I never had.”

One of his aunts just couldn’t find the words to say as she addressed the sanctuary.

But the beautiful service that celebrated the life of a spirited, and
bashful child, was interrupted when a man attending the funeral stated
the child killed by a man who wasn`t a good dad.

“A child was born and lost his life from a child not being a father,” said the unknown funeral attendee.

Maurice Brown Senior`s family rushed outside the church`s sanctuary, cursing.

The sounds of singing and sniffles, were replaced with commotion and chaos.

Dozens of Memphis Police were able to stop the argument from getting more volatile outside.

Inside the church, Brown Junior`s cousins cried their hearts out.

Funeral attendees shook their heads, telling News Channel 3 they were
heartbroken for a child killed in violence and now buried in violence.

The service continued minutes later to honor Brown Junior and his family.

“I know he`s in a better place, I’m going to see him one day again,” expressed Page Kanneh.

As a precaution, Memphis police escorted the man whose comment ignited the disruption off the property.

Following the disruption, the funeral director stated, people had forgotten the day was about celebrating the child’s life.

Maurice Brown Sr. remain in jail, charged with first degree murder.

A bond has not been set. Brown Sr. heads to court Monday.
http://wreg.com/2012/07/07/funeral-held-for-toddler-killed-possibly-by-father/

Memphis father makes brief court appearance in son's murder

By Lawrence Buser
Posted July 9, 2012 at 10:24 a.m.

A Memphis man charged last week with killing his 3-year-old son made his first court appearance Monday morning flanked by jail security officers and courtroom deputies.

Maurice Brown, 28, told General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Joyce Broffitt that he has a lawyer who is out of town, prompting the judge to reset the first-degree murder case to July 26.

Brown is charged with the beating death of his son, Maurice Brown Jr., whose body was found last Tuesday in a dumpster near Allen and Butler, less than two miles from his residence.

The father reported the boy missing Sunday evening July 1 from their apartment at 347 S. Pauline.

Police said they found blood in the bathroom and a neighbor said he saw Brown carrying his son over his shoulder earlier on the evening he reported his son missing.

The medical examiner said the boy was killed by multiple blunt force trauma.

State prosecutor Jennifer Nichols said no decision on the death penalty has been made, though the chief capital case attorney for the Public Defenders Office, Gerald Skahan, was in court in anticipation of possibly being appointed to the case.Brown, who remains in jail without bond, is charged with first-degree murder in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse.

He also is charged with resisting official detention after police said he scuffled with officers who were trying to take his fingerprints as he was being booked into jail.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/jul/09/memphis-father-makes-brief-court-appearance-in/

Evidence collected during 3 year old's murder investigation revealed

Posted: Jul 09, 2012 5:11 PM CDT
Updated: Jul 10, 2012 5:13 AM CDT
By Nick Kenney

MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) – Action News 5 is learning much more about the evidence found in the home and car of Maurice Brown Sr., which led to his arrest.

At first, police were invited inside the family's apartment as they began investigating the case of missing 3-year-old Maurice Brown Jr.

But by late morning, they had to secure a series of search warrants before moving forward.

We now know what evidence they collected and why.

Maurice Brown Jr. was reported missing at 10:24 p.m. on Sunday, Jul. 1.

When police and family members searched the apartment and surrounding area for the little boy, they found what looked like blood stains on a towel and near the bathtub.

Based on the discovery, investigators wrote up three search warrants uncovered by Action News 5.

The documents note that while they were working the case, the boy's father had changed clothes.

Our cameras rolled while crime scene officers collected items from inside his apartment.

The return on the warrant says officers took:

7 fluid samples
3 hair follicles
4 toothbrushes
1 sheet
A duvet cover
A mop
A pair of orange shorts
2 spoons
A plastic bowl
A plastic cup
A hairbrush

Action News 5 cameras also rolled as a tow truck hauled away Brown's car, a 2002 Toyota Camry.

The return on the search warrant for the car says officers took the floor mat from the trunk and a fabric sample from the backseat.

Investigators also secured a warrant for Brown senior's DNA. The return says officers collected two buccal swabs to compare his DNA against any other DNA discovery.

Maurice Brown Sr. is in jail without bond. He's due back in court Jul. 26.

http://www.wmctv.com/story/18984696/action-news-5-uncovers-evidence-collected-during-3-year-olds-murder-investigation

Accused father's lawyer: Innocent in son's death

ADRIAN SAINZ, Associated Press
Updated 10:38 a.m., Thursday, July 26, 2012

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The lawyer for a man charged with fatally beating his 3-year-old son and dumping the body in a trash bin said Thursday that his client is not guilty.

Maurice Brown Sr., 28, was in court on murder charges in the death of his son, Maurice Brown Jr. Brown Sr. is being held on $1 million bond.

He told the judge that John Perry, a lawyer from Southaven, Miss., is going to represent him in the case.

He told police on July 1 that he had awakened from a nap in his Memphis apartment and found that his son was missing. Authorities began an intensive search, using police dogs and a helicopter. The boy's body was found in a large trash bin two days later.

Police found blood in the father's apartment and a witness said he saw Brown Sr. carrying what appeared to be a small child's body outside of the apartment house the night the boy disappeared, according to an affidavit.

An autopsy showed that the boy died of blunt force trauma. Brown Sr. was charged July 6 with murder in perpetration of aggravated child neglect or endangerment and murder in perpetration of aggravated child abuse.

Perry told reporters outside the courtroom that his client is feeling horrible that his son is dead.

"I do adamantly say my client is not guilty," Perry said.

A formal plea won't be entered until Brown Sr. is indicted by a grand jury.

Brown Sr. had been employed at a fast food restaurant and wanted to work in the music industry, Perry said.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Accused-father-s-lawyer-Innocent-in-son-s-death-3737709.php[b]

Father accused of murdering son appears in court

Posted: Updated: By WMCTV.com Staff




MEMPHIS, TN -

(WMC-TV) - Maurice Brown, Sr. was escorted into court by two jailers. He seemed calm and emotionless during his video arraignment Monday.

"He was advised of the new charges, which in this case is murder in the first degree, as well as resisting official detention," said Prosecutor Jennifer Nichols.

The resisting official detention charge came when Brown fought with jailers over getting his fingerprints.

"Last week, I was asked whether there would be additional charges added and, of course, I couldn't comment on that because I didn't know. The police continued their investigation and did find, obviously, additional evidence," said Nichols.

One week ago, Brown told police his 3-year-old son went missing while he was asleep. When he woke up, he said his son was gone.

Little Maurice Brown Jr. was found dead in a dumpster two days later.

Police found blood all over the bathroom of the family's apartment. The medical examiner determined the boy died of blunt force trauma.

"The new charge of murder resulted from finding the body and getting a cause of death," said Nichols.

Maurice Brown, Sr. now sits in jail without bond. He is charged with 1st degree murder in connection with the death of his 3-year-old son.


http://www.wmctv.com/story/18978608/maurice-brown-sr-is-back-in-court-today