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Tiané Aisha Noelle Brown: Dec. 31, 1979 - Oct. 30, 2013 (Facebook photo)
Two drifters were arraigned on charges of criminal acts early this week after one of them found law student Tiané Brown's body in the front seat of her SUV on Detroit's east side.
Eric D. Lawrence reports in the Free Press on the court hearing:
A magistrate told one of the two men arrested in connection with the investigation into the slaying of a Wayne State University Law School student today that he could face up to life in prison if he’s convicted in the case.
Michael Booker, 41, is an habitual offender, according to 34th District Court Magistrate Alan Hindman, who set Booker’s bail at $500,000 during a video arraignment in the Romulus courtroom. Both Booker and his co-defendant, Robert Windsor, 34, are homeless. . . .
Booker was charged with tampering with evidence, larceny from a motor vehicle, receiving and concealing stolen property under $1,000, breaking and entering a motor vehicle and two counts of assault and battery on Brown. Windsor is charged with receiving and concealing stolen property.
"Stolen property" apparently refers to Brown's cell phone and wallet, earlier police comments indicate. The assault and battery allegations are a disturbing new development that suggests especially depraved behavior.
Windsor's bail is set at $10,000.
Friday night update:
Family members are preparing a funeral service late next week for Tiané Brown, a Wayne State law student whose body was found Wednesday in her Chevrolet Trailblazer on Detroit's east side.
Though Detroit Police haven't made an arrest in the gunshot murder, which occurred sometime after she left a class Monday night, the Free Press reports late Friday that two men who are charged in the theft of her cell phone.
Michael Booker, 41, is being charged with tampering with evidence, larceny from a motor vehicle, receiving and concealing stolen property under $1,000, breaking and entering a motor vehicle under $1,000 and two counts of assault and battery.
Robert Windsor, 34, is being charged with receiving and concealing stolen property under $1,000, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. . . .
The two men were arrested after police found them with Brown’s phone, police have said. Homicide Capt. Russell Solano said, at this point, police don’t believe the men were involved in Brown’s killing.
Visitation for the slain student is next Friday, Nov. 8, from 9 AM to 9 PM at James H. Cole Funeral Home, 16100 Schaefer in northwest Detroit.
Funeral services begin at 11 AM Nov. 9 in Oasis of Hope Christian Church, 933 W. 7 Mile, followed by internment at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit.
Survivors include three daughters, ages 1 to 14, sister Danyele McCreary and parents Sheryl and Nathan Jones of West Bloomfield.
Brown, 33, grew up in Detroit and graduated from Renaissance High in 1997 before earning multiple engineering degrees at Wayne, and then beginning a career switch to law. She lived in Waterford Township.
Condolence messages can be posted at Cole's website, where these are among sentiments shared:
- We share your grief and loss. She will always be remembered and missed. -- Teneisha Austin and Family
- It sounds like she was a beautiful and intelligent woman who wanted nothing more than to succeed in life and create a wonderful home for her children. My thoughts and prayers are with the all of Ms. Brown's family and friends, especially her sweet babies. -- Amber
- It made me sick to my stomach when I heard on the news that she was found deceased. She had such a bright future ahead that should have been realized. -- Mrs. Malone
Thursday night update:
As Detroit homicide detectives continue investigating the single-gunshot death of a suburban mother studying to become a lawyer, two funds are established to accept donations for her three girls.
Wayne State University, where 33-year-old Tiané Brown of Waterford Township earned two engineering degrees and was a third-year law student, is accepting monetary gifts to the family.
Checks can be made payable to WSU with a reference to The Tiané Brown Fund on the memo line. They can be sent to WSU, Beecher House, 5475 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202. Credit cards can be used by calling the Wayne State Fund Office at (313) 577-2263 or by visiting giving.wayne.edu.
The Yatooma Foundation for Kids, based in Oakland County, has offered to give the family grief counseling and other services. It will accept donations to be given directly to Brown's parents and children, who are aged 1, 8 and 14. Benefactors can donate online or by mail to 1900 S. Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302. Indicate the donation is for Tiané Brown.
As for the murder investigation, Kim Russell of WXYZ reports that Detroit and Wayne State University Police sources say the two people detained Wednesday may not be her killers.
They have examined numerous university surveillance video clips trying to figure out what happened before Brown died. We know she was last seen alive on campus Monday night. . . . Police are trying to find out what happened next.
Police say they are still investigating whether something happened to her on or off campus.
'Particularly Disturbing'
On social media, numerous discussions continue about the victim, the crime and how it affects views of studying, working and living in Detroit.
"Ms. Brown's death was particularly disturbing for me as a . . . graduate of Wayne State University Law School," Warren McAlpine posts on Facebook. "It is sad that the bright light of Tiane Brown was lost as a result of the ignorance, despair, self-hate, drugs, and violence that shroud the city of Detroit."
The news hit Annie Ellington personally and professionally. She is director of a Detroit Youth Violence Prevention Initiative for the mayor's office
"One of the nagging issues I have with our work," she comments in a discussion with MSU sociologist Carl Taylor, "is that too much of it focuses on crimes where the victims and perpetrators are typically males -- black males, to be more specific. Victims are poor and the perps have backgrounds that are by far dysfunctional. That's why people feel comfortable posting racist and insensitive comments online news sites, because those victims, perps and crimes don't demand we care.
"However, this horrific homicide clearly challenges all those excuses . . . all those race, class and gender issues surrounding violence."
Here are three other Facebook sentiments:
- "Tears and rage:" I am full of tears and rage. A human life with so much promise, so much knowledge, was cut short and the world will never benefit from her fullest potential. Killers, you not only killed Tiané Brown, but future generations who would have thrived on her resources, knowledge, insight and inspiration. You killed a community. -- Angelika Jo
- "Broken my heart:" didn't know Tiané, but her murder has broken my heart for all she was and was going to be, [and] the fear she must have felt knowing her death was imminent. -- Donna Woods of Canton, U.S. Treasury Department manager
- "I am sickened:" I have no words, I am sickened by yet another promising life taken from us. . . . There has to be some solution to this violence that has overrun our community." -- Shelle Russell
Wednesday afternoon article:
A 33-year-old suburban Wayne State University student with two masters degrees was murdered after disappearing Monday in Detroit, police say.
Tiané Brown, a third-year law student from Waterford Township, led a campus group, worked at an Oakland County intellectual property law firm and also managed to fit in board service at a nonprofit group. Her body was found Wednesday morning in a vacant lot near the abandoned Packard Plant in Detroit. .
Detroit News: “This should not have happened,” Police Chief James Craig said during a press conference at Police Headquarters. “We, Detroit, owe Tiane and the other homicide victims in this city more. We need to be angry about the level of violence in the city of Detroit.”
Free Press: A source in the Detroit Police Department said Brown, 33, a mother of three who disappeared Monday after leaving a class, had been shot once in the head. Her SUV was discovered in a vacant lot, a couple of blocks from the old plant.
Two “persons of interest” are being questioned, authorities said. . . .
Brown, a third-year law student, was last seen on Monday, Oct. 28, at 8:15 p.m. at the Wayne State Law School. She was reported missing by her parents after she failed to pick up her three children at their home in West Bloomfield. . . .
“It’s a tragic day because Tiane was special to so many, someone striving to be a key part of this city,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig said.
'A Call to Action"
Grief, anger and personal reflections were posted on social media Wednesday afternoon and evening by people who knew the victim and many who didn't.
"This is so very sad. I couldn't help but think of all the times I left campus after a late night at the law school," says a Facebook comment by Detroit attorney Portia Roberson, a former assistant Wayne County prosecutor who held a presidential appointment from 2009 through last summer as the Justice Department's public liaison and intergovernmental affairs director. "If there was ever a call to action about violent crime in our city, this is it. "
From Lansing, nationally prominent sociologist Carl S. Taylor of MSU -- a Detroiter -- also voices outrage.
"The murder of a WSU law student denotes how serious the public safety charge has become," he posts on his Facebook page.
"We are not safe. It also allows a sense of normalization that is inexcusable. It means that a culture that accepts such behavior needs change. Families, children and most adults in the city are impacted. True leadership must come from all corners of our community.
The smugness of those who live safely needs change. Those who know people who disregard humanity need change. This young woman deserved public safety. The attitude of politicians who fail to see our public safety need across the city must awaken. . . . Public safety is a rule in a working democracy."
Kim Trent, a member of WSU's Board of Governors, posts:
WSU will set up a fund for Tianne and offer free tuition to her three children. She will posthumously receive her law degree this spring. This would have been her fourth earned WSU degree. We hope these things will bring some degree of comfort to Tianne's loved ones at this tragic moment.
Brown's 2008 burgundy Chevy Trailblazer was at the vacant lot, according to the Free Press.
She was in her second month of a paid law clerkship at a Bloomfield Hills firm, the Rader, Fishman & Grauer law firm, reports Charles E. Ramirez of The News.
Varied Professional Career
She previously was a biomechanical engineer at General Dynamics and as a Beaumont Hospital emergency room technician, her Facebook page and law firm bio say. She graduated from Renaissance High in Detroit in 1997.
Dozens of friends, acquaintances and schoolmates react to her death on Facebook, where LaWanda Sivels, a 1994 Cooley High graduate from Detroit, posts:
This is so upsetting, especially when it's someone you know. What is this world coming to. I am just so lost for words and in shock. Some animals took this young mother from her three beautiful children and family. She was such a nice and sweet young lady and will be missed.
Brown's six-paragraph profile page at the Oakland law firm's website gives this background:
Tiane holds a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, M.A. in Business Administration, B.S. in Biological Sciences and is currently working toward a J.D. degree. . . .
She is concentrating her studies on Intellectual Property law. . . . Tiane is currently president of the Wayne Intellectual Property Student Association (WIPSA). She is also participating in the 2013 National IP Law Meet competition where she is gaining experience in transactional IP practice.
Tiane Brown is a member of the board of directors for Developing K.I.D.S., a Michigan-based nonprofit organization that provides free after school weekend and summer programs for children and their families in the Detroit metro area.
