Kenyel Brown was never tried for murder. In February 2020 the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office charged him with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and eight other counts over a shooting in River Rouge, a small city just south of Detroit, in which two people died and a third was wounded. Police in River Rouge, Highland Park and Detroit also named him as the suspect, or as a person of interest, in four more deaths between December 2019 and late February 2020. Before any of those cases reached a courtroom, he shot himself as officers closed in on him in Oak Park on February 24, 2020. He died in a hospital on February 28, 2020. He was 40.
His case drew wide attention for a second reason. On February 26, 2020, Detroit Police Chief James Craig told reporters that Brown had been a paid informant. He had worked first with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and then with a joint task force of Detroit police officers and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which signed him up on October 29, 2019, the same day he was released from federal supervision. During that supervision he had failed drug tests, been arrested for drunk driving and broken the terms of his release several times, according to Craig. He stayed free. Within a week of that disclosure, Craig pulled his officers out of the DEA task force, ending a partnership of about 20 years.
Because Brown died before trial, no court ever tested the evidence against him.
Brown was described by police in February 2020 as a 40-year-old River Rouge man. His full name, as police released it during the manhunt, was Kenyel William Brown. His adult record is set out in court records summarized by FOX 2 Detroit in February 2020 and again in the 2023 lawsuit.
According to those records, his first arrest came in 1997 (August 1997, by the lawsuit's account), for carrying a concealed weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon. He served about a year in the Wayne County Jail. In 1999 he was arrested for fleeing police and carrying a concealed weapon; the weapon charge was dismissed and he received four years' probation for fleeing. The same year he was arrested for possessing a Taser and trying to sell it. He pleaded guilty to the attempted sale and received another four years' probation, and the possession count was dismissed.
In 2000 he was arrested after a police chase in which a person died. He was charged with second-degree homicide and other counts. The homicide charge was dropped, and in 2001 he pleaded guilty to two counts of fleeing police. A 2001 arrest for delivering or manufacturing narcotics ended with the charges dismissed. The Associated Press, summarizing his history in March 2020, reported that he had taken plea deals in about six cases between 1997 and 2000 and that he was paroled in 2010 after a state prison term for fleeing police as a habitual offender. A WXYZ report from February 2020 said court records showed he had earlier been charged with second-degree murder in 2000.
Accounts of how serious that record was differ. Speaking to reporters on the day of the Oak Park chase, Craig said Brown had served 10 years in prison for manslaughter, according to The Telegram, a River Rouge newspaper. The court-record summaries published by FOX 2 Detroit and the Associated Press describe the 2000 homicide charge as dropped and the prison time as a sentence for fleeing police. The two accounts cannot both be right.
FOX 2 reported that Brown had no arrests or convictions for about 13 years before 2014. In 2014 he was arrested on gun charges. The state case was dismissed when the matter moved to federal court, and in July 2014, by FOX 2's account of the court records, he was sentenced to 15 to 21 months in federal prison. The Associated Press dated the federal sentence to 2015. He was released after serving 15 months, and by 2017 he was out of prison on supervised release, according to the AP.
In March 2015, according to court documents cited by FOX 2 Detroit, Brown reached an agreement with the ATF to become a federal informant. The documents said he gave information about his own crimes and about other people he believed were involved in crime where he lived.
His supervised release did not go smoothly. Craig said that while Brown was on federal supervision and working as an informant, he failed drug screens, was arrested for operating while intoxicated, and violated the conditions of his release seven to nine times. CBS Detroit reported that he also missed a mandated meeting with drug counselors. WDIV reported Craig's figure as eight violations. The AP said he had multiple probation violations and at least two arrests in the year before the killings began.
On October 29, 2019, Brown appeared before U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman for a probation violation hearing. According to the AP, the judge told him, "You've got to stop doing this." A spokesman for the U.S. District Court told The Detroit News, as the AP reported, that Brown was released "at the behest of a federal law enforcement agency." The agency was not named. U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in early March 2020 that he had seen nothing showing that any law enforcement agency had asked the federal court to release Brown or keep him out of custody.
The same day, October 29, 2019, a Detroit police officer assigned to the DEA task force signed Brown up as an informant. Craig said the date was the same day Brown was released from federal supervision, and that he did not know why. "I don't have an answer as to why," he told reporters, as FOX 2 reported.
Brown was signed up to provide information about gang and drug activity in southwest Detroit, according to CBS Detroit. Between late October 2019 and February 3, 2020, Craig said, Brown gave information on one occasion about a local narcotics street gang. The tip did not pan out. He was paid $150.
Craig said the handoff had gone wrong. In his account, there was no discussion of Brown's history when he was passed to the task force, the ATF did not tell the task force about his violations, and the task force officer did not know about his past crimes. "When we vetted him we didn't know about his violations," Craig said, as FOX 2 reported. "Had we known, this isn't a person we would want to use," he said, according to WXYZ. He also said the ATF was not aware the DEA planned to sign Brown on.
Not everyone accepted that the history was hidden. WDIV reported that, according to its sources, Detroit police could have checked Brown's criminal history in court documents. A man who worked with homeless people in Detroit and had known Brown from the streets told WDIV that Brown's addictions should have made it plain he was not fit to be free or to work as an informant. "He was a danger to himself and the rest of society," he said.
The task force deactivated Brown as an informant on February 3, 2020, after his name came up as a suspect in the River Rouge shooting, according to Craig and the AP.
Police linked Brown to six deaths in three Wayne County cities between December 2019 and February 22, 2020. He was charged in two of them. The other four were never charged. Craig said the killings were not random, and that they appeared to involve money, drugs, robbery and violent disputes. "It was clear he had a significant drug problem, he spiraled out of control and began to use violence," Craig said, according to WXYZ.
Loren Harrington, 31, was the first person police linked to Brown, according to WXYZ. He was found shot to death in River Rouge on December 7, 2019. Brown was never charged in his death. CBS Detroit said only that Brown was a person of interest in a December homicide in River Rouge. Two other accounts give a different date: the Associated Press and The Telegram both listed a River Rouge death on January 8, 2020, as one of the six, and neither listed one in December.
Loren Harrington's mother asked publicly why Brown had been free and working as an informant despite his violations. "Did they know where he was at all times?" she said, as WXYZ reported.
Kimberly Green, 52, and Dorian Patterson, 48, were shot and killed in River Rouge. A third person, a man, was shot and survived, according to River Rouge police. WDIV reported on the morning of January 31, 2020 that the shooting had happened on the night of Thursday, January 30. WXYZ also dated the killings to January 30. The 2023 lawsuit, as reported by FOX 2, gives January 29. The prosecutor's charging announcement, as reported by WXYZ, and the AP's later summary both give February 2.
Kimberly Green worked for a Catholic social services agency in Ann Arbor, according to WXYZ. Her family held a candlelight vigil and released balloons in her honor in River Rouge on February 6, 2020, while police were still searching for Brown. Her cousin, who said she was like a sister to him and that the two were inseparable, called her a "beautiful soul" lost "for no reason." The family, he said, was devastated and wanted justice. A man who said he had been engaged to one of the victims told WDIV she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. "She loved everybody," he said. Dorian Patterson was pronounced dead at the scene. The lawsuit, as summarized by FOX 2, spells his surname Paterson.
The surviving man later gave his own account in the lawsuit. According to the court filing as reported by FOX 2, Brown had asked him to lend him money and he had refused several times before the shooting began. He was the only one of the three people shot to survive.
These are the only two deaths in which Brown was charged. By February 6, the U.S. Marshals were offering a reward of $5,000 for information leading to his arrest, according to WXYZ. Police and the Marshals had been searching for him since early February.
Garcius Woodyard, 49, of Ypsilanti, died in Highland Park on February 18, 2020. Highland Park police confirmed that Brown was a person of interest in the death, according to FOX 2 Detroit. Reports differ on how he died. FOX 2 reported that Highland Park police described it as a beating death. WXYZ reported that he died of a gunshot wound, and CBS Detroit described a man fatally shot in Highland Park that day. Brown was never charged in this death.
Amir Thaxton, 41, was shot and killed on the night of Thursday, February 20, 2020, on Detroit's east side, according to WXYZ. He was a graphic designer. His family said he had turned his life around and had worked to succeed and to help others do the same. His cousin told WDIV he was a loving father of three, goofy, funny and playful. "He loved everybody," she said. Friends and family gathered for a vigil on the night of February 22 and released red balloons with messages. "They don't know what they took from us," his cousin said, as WXYZ reported.
Detroit police named Brown as a person of interest. Police said the two men knew each other and that robbery may have been the motive, according to WXYZ. The U.S. Marshals said Brown might be responsible for his death. Detroit police asked the prosecutor's office for a warrant; according to the prosecutor's office, as reported by WXYZ on February 25, the request was returned with a request for further investigation. Brown was never charged.
Eugene Jennings, 36, was found shot to death in Detroit at about 1:45 a.m. on Saturday, February 22, 2020, and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to FOX 2. He was the father of five children. Loved ones described him as a selfless man who held the family together. About 100 people gathered for a candlelight vigil on February 24, the day of the Oak Park chase. His aunt called his death "absolutely senseless." After hearing that police had found Brown, she said, "Thank God they caught him," and that the family could begin to heal. Detroit police said Jennings was one of six homicide victims they attributed to Brown. Detroit police sought a warrant in this death; when Brown died, the request was under review by the prosecutor's office, according to WXYZ. He was never charged.
Police also said they believed Brown was responsible for two carjackings in Detroit, which the AP dated to February 21, 2020. No charges are reported.
Police first named Brown in the River Rouge shooting in early February 2020. By February 6 the U.S. Marshals had posted a reward. After the deaths in Highland Park and Detroit, police and the Marshals described him as a person of interest in six homicides, warned that he was armed and dangerous, and released a description of the vehicle they believed he was driving. By February 22 the reward had risen to $10,000, according to WDIV and The Telegram.
Detroit Police Commander Darin Szilagy called him "very very dangerous" and said he had to be taken into custody, according to WDIV. Craig said police had searched for him around the clock at many locations, and that they believed some people had been helping to hide him. "You can continue to run, you can hide for a while, but we will find you," he said, as The Telegram reported. Over the weekend of February 22 and 23, a citywide manhunt followed a tip that he might be hiding in an apartment building near the city's border, according to CBS Detroit.
At about 1:30 p.m. on Monday, February 24, 2020, a clerk at a bookstore recognized Brown from news reports and called police, according to FOX 2, CBS Detroit and The Telegram. Workers at the store had asked him to leave. Detroit and Oak Park police, with K9 units, searched the neighborhood across the line in Oak Park, in Oakland County. Officers saw him running and jumping fences. In the yard of a house, he shot himself, police said. Craig described it as a "single gunshot wound that he inflicted."
"The good news is no one else got hurt," Craig said, as The Telegram reported. Brown was taken to a hospital in critical condition and held in police custody there. Detroit police said they were looking into whether any of his friends or relatives had helped him avoid capture.
Early reports of the day were confused. WDIV first reported, on the word of sources, that Brown had been fatally shot, and later corrected that he was in critical condition. The Telegram's headline described him as arrested. He was never brought before a court.
On Tuesday, February 25, 2020, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office announced the charges in the River Rouge shooting, as WXYZ and CBS Detroit reported: two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, one count of assault with intent to murder, one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, one count of felon in possession of a firearm, and five counts of felony firearm. The AP reported that he had been charged on February 4. CBS Detroit, on February 24, said he had been charged in January. A WXYZ report from February 6 said court records showed he faced 11 felony charges.
The prosecutor's office also reported two pending Detroit warrant requests: one concerning the death of February 22, which was under review, and one concerning the death of February 20, which had been returned with a request for further investigation. No charges were filed in the deaths of Loren Harrington or Garcius Woodyard.
Brown was declared brain dead on the evening of February 28, 2020, and died at the hospital later that night, according to sources quoted by FOX 2 Detroit. Medics had lost his pulse several times after the shooting and revived him. FOX 2 and WXYZ both reported his death on February 28 on the word of sources. Michigan Public reported on March 3 that he had died the previous Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 40. With his death, the criminal case against him ended without a trial.
The disclosure of Brown's informant work came at a news conference on Wednesday, February 26, 2020. "I'm troubled because we now have six victims," Craig said, according to FOX 2. He said the Department of Justice had kept Brown out of jail despite his repeated violations, and that his record had never been fully disclosed to the task force. He said he had consulted the U.S. Attorney about how that information was missed.
Schneider called it "a horrible tragedy." He said his office was working with its law enforcement partners to determine what happened, and he confirmed that Brown had been "a law enforcement informant for a period of time." "We are going to do everything in our power to get to the bottom of this matter," he said, as WXYZ reported. WDIV reported that he pledged to be open with the victims' families.
On March 3, 2020, Craig announced that Detroit officers were leaving the DEA task force, which the two agencies had run together for more than 20 years. He said the decision was not about the officers on the task force but about poor communication and weak leadership, and about the DEA's refusal to acknowledge in public that it had used Brown as an informant. "This man was a federal informant," he said. He said he could not work with a partner that did not show "integrity, accountability, and transparency," and added, "to continue to hunker down and just not deal with it is wrong," according to Michigan Public and FOX 2.
Craig acknowledged that a Detroit officer had registered and paid Brown. He said task force officers were deputized as federal agents and that DEA supervisors knew of the arrangement. At a meeting the day before, he said, DEA officials had blamed the Detroit department for recruiting Brown. The DEA did not answer questions in public; in a short statement it said it remained "committed to working with the Detroit Police Department." Craig said his officers would keep working with ATF, FBI and U.S. Marshals task forces, and that Detroit police and the DEA would still work on narcotics cases, but as separate agencies. He said he did not know which federal agency, if any, had asked a judge to release Brown, and he wanted that release investigated.
In late January or early February 2023, the man who survived the River Rouge shooting sued the City of Detroit and two Detroit police officers identified only as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, FOX 2 Detroit reported on February 2, 2023. He argued that the city should have known about Brown's criminal past before using him as an informant, and that the city and the officers were responsible for his injuries. He sought $75,000 in damages. The lawsuit's summary of Brown's record repeated the 1997 arrest and the dropped homicide charge, and said that most of the charges against him between 1998 and 2020 had been dropped.
Brown was charged in two deaths and tried in none. A charge is an accusation, not a finding, and his death ended the case before any jury heard the evidence.
The other four deaths rest on police statements that he was the suspect or a person of interest. Detroit police sought warrants in two of them; neither was issued before he died, and one had been sent back for more investigation. No warrant request was reported in the River Rouge death of December 2019 or the Highland Park death of February 18.
Accounts also disagree on several basic points: the date of the first River Rouge death (December 7, 2019, or January 8, 2020); the date of the double killing (January 29, January 30 or February 2, 2020); the date he was charged (January, February 4 or February 25, 2020); how Garcius Woodyard died; and whether Brown's earlier prison time was for manslaughter, as Craig was quoted as saying, or for fleeing police, as the court-record summaries say.
1997: First arrest, on weapons and assault charges; about a year in the Wayne County Jail.
1999: Arrests for fleeing police and for trying to sell a Taser; probation.
2000 to 2001: Charged with second-degree homicide after a police chase in which a person died; the homicide charge was dropped and he pleaded guilty to fleeing police.
2010: Paroled from a state prison term (AP).
2014: Arrested on gun charges; the case moved to federal court; sentenced to 15 to 21 months (FOX 2; the AP gives 2015).
March 2015: Agreement with the ATF to become an informant.
By 2017: Out of prison on federal supervised release.
October 29, 2019: Probation violation hearing before Judge Bernard Friedman; released from federal supervision; signed up the same day as an informant by a Detroit officer on the DEA task force.
December 7, 2019: Loren Harrington found shot to death in River Rouge (WXYZ; the AP and The Telegram list a River Rouge death on January 8, 2020).
January 30, 2020: Kimberly Green and Dorian Patterson shot and killed in River Rouge; a third person wounded (WDIV, WXYZ; other dates reported).
February 3, 2020: Deactivated as an informant.
February 6, 2020: Vigil for Kimberly Green; U.S. Marshals reward of $5,000.
February 18, 2020: Garcius Woodyard killed in Highland Park.
February 20, 2020: Amir Thaxton shot and killed in Detroit.
February 21, 2020: Two carjackings in Detroit that police attributed to Brown (AP).
February 22, 2020: Eugene Jennings found shot to death in Detroit; reward raised to $10,000.
February 24, 2020: Recognized by a store clerk; chased by police in Oak Park; shot himself.
February 25, 2020: Prosecutor announces charges in the River Rouge case.
February 26, 2020: Craig discloses that Brown had been a federal and task force informant.
February 28, 2020: Dies in a hospital.
March 3, 2020: Detroit police leave the DEA task force.
February 2023: The survivor of the River Rouge shooting sues the City of Detroit.