Ninth-Grader Charged in Deacon's Shooting Death

Raleigh, N.C. — A teenager faces a murder charge in the death of a church deacon who was shot outside his home while checking his mail.

Latrell Cyrell Latham, 16, of 4908 N. New Hope Road, was charged Thursday afternoon in the Oct. 23 death of Richard Gus Brown, 74.

Latham, a ninth-grader who attended Millbrook High School, was arrested Nov. 13 on an unrelated strong armed robbery charge and was already in jail when he was charged in Brown's death.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said information collected in the case evenutally led investigators to Latham, but he would not comment on what that information was or a motive, saying the investigation is ongoing.

"The detectives have just done a laborious and intensive job of compiling the bits and pieces of information that came together on the case," Sughrue said, "and eventually, those pieces fell into place to form a whole."

Brown had returned from a deacon's meeting at his church shortly before 8 p.m. on that night when someone shot him while he was outside his Wallingford Drive apartment, police said.

"I don't know how to feel," Brown's widow, Evelyn Brown, said Thursday upon hearing the news of an arrest. She said she intended to spend the evening quietly and in prayer.

Evelyn Brown said she was relieved and thankful to investigators for their work on the case.

"I've always had confidence in them," she said.

According to Wake County Public School System records, Latham left school on Nov. 7, a week before his arrest on the robbery charge.