2 teen girls found guilty in 2023 beating death of 64-year-old DC man
WASHINGTON - Two teenage girls have been found guilty in the beating death of a 64-year-old man who was attacked by a group of teenage girls last year.
Reggie Brown died after he was chased down and assaulted by the teens on the night of October 17, 2023. Police say the girls beat Brown in an alleyway off Georgia Avenue around 1 a.m. while he was on his way to his sister’s Northwest D.C. home near Rittenhouse Street.
All five girls involved were between 12 and 15 years old when they attacked Brown.
Family told FOX 5 that Brown had recently battled cancer and was frail when the group of girls relentlessly kicked and stomped on him, whipping him with his own belt before leaving him in a pool of his own blood to succumb to blunt force trauma. His pants were also pulled off and his shoes were removed, according to police.
Two of the five teenage girls who fatally beat Brown were found guilty of second-degree murder and assault.
If they were adults they would be facing life in prison but D.C. law requires that they be released by the time they turn 21 at the latest — something that Brown’s family wants to change.
"As you all know there are some other 14-year-old kids who did this to a DJ over the weekend last week. So our fight is going to be to try to change the laws from 21 years old for juveniles so they can stay in and possibly stay in jail for life when they brutally kill someone like they did my brother," Reggie Brown’s sister Malda Brown said.
The other three girls involved have all pleaded guilty to related charges.
Two of Brown’s sisters blamed the city Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services for contributing to juveniles reoffending.
The embattled agency has been criticized by D.C. leaders including the attorney general. They are facing a separate lawsuit filed by the ACLU and DCS public defenders for mismanagement and internal failures.
Around the time Judge Kendra Briggs found both girls guilty Monday morning, the D.C. Council held a roundtable on the recent problems with DYRS, including a reform bill making its way through the council.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb proposed the bill back in May in an effort to stop "repeat" juvenile criminals.
Schwalb says his three-part bill aims to reform practices at DYRS, mandates permanent, independent oversight of the agency and allows District courts to step in when DYRS is not providing appropriate services.