PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — It has been more than a year since someone gunned down a Portsmouth man in a double shooting. Now his family is questioning why the wheels of justice are slow to turn.
Lamont Brown died in September 2022. Police found more than 60 bullet casings at the scene. A suspect, Avery Peoples, was later arrested, but now, he is no longer on the jail roster.
Brown’s mother, Joyce, said three attorneys later, they are telling her the case cannot progress without more evidence.
“There’s been three different Commonwealth’s [Attorneys]… and nobody gave me no help, nobody answered no phones, nobody done nothing,” she told Portsmouth city council members Tuesday while fighting back tears, holding a picture of her late son. “I just want somebody to help me get some kind of justice for my child, and I been begging and calling people and nobody’s been helping me.”
Lamont Brown left behind twins,. They are now in the care of their mother, while spending occasional weekends with the grandparents. She told 10 On Your Side that he loved his daughters.
“He had a set of girls, they’d be 10 on Tuesday,” Joyce Brown told 10 On Your Side. “He was a happy person, a good person.”
At the shooting, a second person was hit — but survived. Joyce Brown said this key witness is not cooperating with the investigation.
“I’m pretty sure Avery Peoples and the other boys, all of them, they know exactly who done it,” Joyce said. “They just let everybody go.”
Despite the evidence left behind, she is stuck without justice more than a year after losing Lamont Brown.
“He was gunned down like an animal out there on the street,” she said.
10 On Your Side reached out to the Office of the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney to ask about this case. It is assigned to one of their special prosecutors.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi responded and said they subpoenaed the person who was hurt in the shooting as a witness, but he did not show up in court. Even though they want to move the case forward, they need more evidence and witnesses to step forward. Fatehi added that the Portsmouth Police Department did what they could for this investigation. He said they are treating this case with the same care they would if it were in their own jurisdiction.
Fatehi urges anyone with information about the shooting of Lamont Brown to work with investigators and come forward. He said their condolences go out to Brown’s family.
