JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Three years after her son was shot walking home from a high school football game, a mother learns the boy was shot again -- this time fatally -- while driving a car that police said refused to stop.
Investigators said 16-year-old Eugene Brown III was shot in the back of the head by a fellow teenager at the end of a police pursuit through northwest Jacksonville Sunday night.
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Police think 19-year-old Telv Coleman pulled the trigger, although he is only charged with giving police a false name.
"I really don't know what happened," Brown's mother, Mary Swan, said through tears on Monday. "He made passing grades. He was a good kid. He didn't do too much wrong."
Her son was a sophomore at Ribault High School who went by the name Gene. Back in 2005 when he was 13, he was shot after attending a Ribault-Raines game.
Police said Brown was driving a Buick LeSabre with its lights off just after 9:30 p.m. Sunday near the intersection of Brooklyn Road and Xavier Street. When an officer attempted to stop the car, Brown and two passengers sped away. Officers said he ran a stop sign, was driving erratically and struck several police cruisers.
A police maneuver on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive caused Brown to lose control of the car and strike a utility pole. Officers found Brown dead of a gunshot wound.
Police said one of the passengers bailed out and ran during the pursuit. Detectives believe the second passenger, Coleman, shot Brown as they crashed, but they are not sure if the shooting was an accident or on purpose.
"It could have been a carjacking, or that victim, the person who was shot, could have been the victim of something else, too," Lewis said.
Witnesses told police they heard six or more gunshots coming from police, but no bullet holes were visible in the car. Lewis said a shell casing was found inside the car and police are sure the shot that killed Brown came from inside the vehicle.
"Our evidence shows that there's no reason to believe that the police fired any shots at all," Lewis said.
Coleman, who lives in Macclenny, told detectives he didn't remember what happened.
Coleman was arrested after police said he initially gave them a false identity. Police later learned he had an outstanding warrant for home-invasion robbery out of Union County.
Police also said officers recognized the LeSabre as being one from which several assault rifles were seized in June.
Brown's mother has many questions about what happened to her son.
"I don't know what to think," Swan said.
Anyone who knows anything about the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.
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- December 15, 2008: 16-Year-Old Driver Dead After Police Chase