Middle Georgia Cold Cases: Wrong Place, Wrong Time

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Warner Robins police are looking for a killer officer say shot and killed a 34-year-old man at an apartment complex in August 2008.A lot of people come to Warner Robins — they don’t call it the ‘International City’ for no reason.

Seven years ago, Ronald Brown wanted to have some fun so he headed to a house party in the Cedar Pointe apartment complex on Ignico Drive.

“He was at the apartment and they were having a cookout. Now there were people inside the apartment, there were people outside and he just arrived,” Captain Chris Rooks says.

Minutes after Brown got there, a robber disrupted the party — and that’s where things get hazy.

“Crimes like this don’t happen in that apartment complex, and they haven’t,” Rooks says.

What happened next was unexpected.

“He was just a visitor and he got in the middle of an altercation. He was shot multiple times,” Rooks says while looking over the case file.

Authorities say when they got to the Cedar Pointe Apartments, it was chaotic. People were running everywhere because of the shooting. It was hard to find witnesses and find out who the possible shooter was. Investigators say it was as if Brown was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“People that see something or they see something they don’t think is important or they think the police already know about this, they don’t let us know about that. So we really don’t know,” says Rooks.

In the middle of the chaos, officers say someone left behind a clue.

“Now this piece of evidence that we have, it doesn’t necessarily belong to the suspect. It may belong to a witness, we don’t know. We just know we found it at the crime scene,” Rooks says.

That clue was a fitted Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap. Captain Rooks says the hat’s owner could bring investigators one step closer to solving this case.

“One side of the hat has the name ‘blind side’ on it. Now we don’t know the significance of that, we don’t who the hat belongs to, but we did find it at the scene,” Rooks says.

After interviewing several witnesses, Rooks says there wasn’t much to go with, but there were a few leads.

“We also had information that there was a brown, older model box style car without rims. I understand the rims were blacked out,” says Rooks reflecting over the case.

Officers weren’t able to track down the car or who pulled the trigger. Rooks says it’s tough to deal with, especially going back to Brown’s family with little information.

“When you talk to the family and children and loved ones and you go through that grieving process with them as you’re working that case. It affects you and a lot of times you begin to feel like you’re apart of that family,” Rooks says.

If you know who shot Ron Brown, call the Warner Robins Police Department at 478-302-5378.