Michael Brown was 16 years old when he was killed in the city of St. Louis on Monday, August 1, 2011. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated his death. The Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in St. Louis through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about this Michael Brown has been made public.
No news story about his killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had parents, brothers or sisters, classmates and friends who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew the attacker, what time of day it happened, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether anyone else was hurt or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
He should not be confused with Michael Brown Jr., the 18-year-old who was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer in St. Louis County on August 9, 2014, three years later. That case became a national story, and nearly every search for the name Michael Brown in the St. Louis area now returns coverage of it. The 16-year-old killed in the city in 2011 is a different person, and the attention given to the later case has all but buried any trace of his.
His age stands out most. At 16, he was of high school age, still a minor under the law. A boy that young would have had parents or guardians, teachers and friends who noticed when something was wrong, and his death in the last weeks of summer vacation, shortly before a new school year, would have been felt by his classmates.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in north St. Louis, in the area of the Fairground and O'Fallon neighborhoods, a residential part of the city a few miles north of downtown. People who lived in that area in August 2011 may remember the boy, and may remember the police activity that followed his death.
St. Louis has long had one of the highest homicide rates of any large American city. The city recorded more than 100 homicides in every year of the early 2010s, and the yearly totals later climbed to 188 in 2015 and 205 in 2017. In many of those years, fewer than half of the city's killings ended in an arrest. Cases with few public details, like his, often faded from view quickly, and killings of teenagers often leave behind friends who know more than they ever told police.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Michael Brown could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew the 16-year-old Michael Brown, who went to school with him, or who heard talk afterward about what happened to him in August 2011, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division at 314-444-5371, or call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (866-371-8477), where tips can be anonymous.
