HOUSTON – They called him the “iPhone Repair King” on social media. At home, they called him Darryl. Most knew him as Emmanuel Brown.
The 22-year-old Lone Star College student, from Liberia, who was all set to graduate in the coming weeks was gunned down in South Houston in an apparent robbery attempt.
“Every second, every minute, I miss him,” Emmanuel Browne Sr. said in an interview.
“I need justice for my son. I need justice,” he added. “By the grace of God, we’ll find it.”
On April 29, in the middle of the day, Browne Jr. responded to a request for an iPhone repair in South Houston, at the Park Yellowstone apartments and never returned.
Houston police released surveillance photos of three men they said shot Browne Jr. in his car and left him to die.
“I’m praying for God to help me,” said his mother, Feta Browne. “It’s so hard. It’s everything I was afraid of.”
The Browne family moved to Houston from West Africa in 2008 “to have a better life.”
Browne Jr. sold chips and other snacks in high school to raise $5,000 to buy his first car, his parents said. He was always working.
“He always said, ‘Mommy, I’m going to work for nobody,” Feta Browne said. “I’m going to work for myself.”
“He saved everything,” his father said. “He didn’t buy nice things for himself. He always had his goals.”
“I always wanted to see him get to that place he wanted to be,” Feta Browne said, in tears. “To see him get married, see his children.”
If you recognize any of the three men in the surveillance photos or know anything about this case, contact the Houston Police Department.