In the early hours of a Saturday in August 2013, the city of Philadelphia recorded another life lost to violence. Lamar Brown, a 30-year-old man from West Powelton, was found in a grim scene that initially appeared to be a car accident. Police responded to a report of a wrecked vehicle on 33rd Street near Master in the Brewerytown neighborhood around 2:15 a.m.
Inside the car, they discovered Brown in the driver's seat, unresponsive.
It was at Hahnemann University Hospital that the true nature of the incident came to light. Doctors discovered that a wound to Brown's neck was not from the crash, but from a gunshot. This finding immediately shifted the focus of the investigation from a simple car wreck to a homicide. Brown was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m., leaving behind questions and a family to grieve.
In the immediate aftermath of the discovery, police had little to go on. Investigators reported no known suspects and had not determined a motive for the shooting. The investigation into who shot Lamar Brown and why was in its earliest stages, with authorities appealing to the public for any information that might lead to a breakthrough in the case. Despite the passage of time, publicly available information and news reports have not indicated that any arrests have been made in connection with the murder of Lamar Brown, leaving the case unresolved.
