For a mother dropping her toddler off at a Brooklyn Park, Minn. day care, it was just another day. But Monday morning (very early, just before 6:30 AM) she spots a suspicious man outside DeLois Brown’s business, and calls the police and calls Delois to alert her of the danger. The phone line goes dead, so the woman returns to the home (8117 College Park Dr.) and finds three adults have been shot dead. The unidentified woman’s day (April 9, 2012) is suddenly not so ordinary anymore.
By way of secondary sources, the victims appear to be DeLois Brown herself and her two parents, James and Clover Bolden. DeLois’s had just taken her parents in to look after them. Her parents are from the St. Louis, Mo. area. Delois was a professional in the day care service she provided and had been a day care director for five years at the Osseo Area School District’s alternative learning center in Brooklyn Park. Who would want to harm her and her parents?
Eye-witnesses must have gotten a good look at the suspect; he was a young black man fleeing the scene on bicycle (a BMX type bike). The suspect was wearing gloves, bluejeans, and a blue sweatshirt with a gray hood. The only news video I could find on this terrible day care shooting comes from KARE 11, filed by journalist Boua Xiong. A helpful pic of the sweatshirt in question is shown on the local broadcast.
I’ll not go down the perilous avenue that it was a young black man wearing a hoodie who is the apparent shooter, but just to let you know, the thought crossed my mind. Why would this young man want to do this anyway? Did he know DeLois? Was robbery a possible motive? One wouldn’t think much cash could be on the premises of a home, that functioned as a makeshift day care center also.
A piece I saw online in the Bellingham Herald (3 adults fatally shot at Minnesota day care, by Paul Walsh, Paul Levy, and Stephanie Audette), which must have been syndicated from the Star Tribune (Minneapolis), provided some good primary source journalism. That is, at least one witness (ear-witnesses, not eye-witnesses) heard the ruckus at precisely 6:28 AM Monday morning. Hakeem Hughes (18) heard screaming.
Rumors and fear spread quickly through the Brooklyn Park neighborhood, which has been characterized as safe, friendly, and well-kept. That would appear to be the case, when viewing the scant news footage available to a most curious public. As the police searched for the suspect, they cautioned residents to remain behind locked doors. Hennepin Technical College even had to go to a lockdown. Several cooking students were shocked when their classes were cancelled.
Once again, the question of motive presses down tightly (like a vice grip) on our hearts and minds. A brother-in-law to DeLois Brown, Christopher Brown, told Boua Xiong that Delois was either at her day care business (Visions and Butterflies Child Care) or was at her church. Her moral character is firmly in tact, from what we hear. There’s something else going on here? This young man had some type of grievance towards DeLois, but what was it? No mention of robbery in any stories I’ve read so far, yet the news just broke!
Family of slain Brookly Park victims speak out | kare11.com