The Deed Of A Guyanese Good Samaritan Repaid With Death Her Teenage Daughter Killed By Younger Cousin

By Tony Best

A Caribbean mother in Brooklyn has learned the hard way that being a Good Samaritan doesn’t always bring tears of joy.

For within 48 hours of opening her home to a runaway teenage relative, Tiana Browne, so she could turn her life around by living in a loving home, Marva Brathwaite, a Guyanese, was in a flood of tears, grieving after her 16 year old daughter, Shannon Brathwaite, was allegedly murdered by her 15 year old cousin who had been welcomed into her home.

The upshot of the tragedy in Crown Heights is that the entire Brathwaite clan in and out of New York City and the Caribbean is in a state of shock; West Indians in the tri-state area are shaking their heads in disbelief; Brown is in jail charged with second degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, a knife that was used to kill the teenager; and a heart-broken mother who had high hopes for her daughter is preparing to bury the child whom she said had lived a Christian life before and after she came to Brooklyn from Guyana.

I knew (Tiana) was a problem child, mother told reporters. I knew she was a runaway. But I never knew (she was) planning on killing my daughter. I never knew she had that much rage in her. She cut my daughter up 29 times. My daughter was just 16. She was a good child.

The shocking crime unfolded to full public view when Ms. Brathwaite returned home on Empire Boulevard and found the apartment door blocked.

When I put my hand in and removed the chain, my daughter was lying there, cut up and there was a lot of blood, the mother explained later.I thought they were playing.

Actually, her daughter’s dead body had blocked the door. Police are speculating that there may have been an argument between Shannon and Tiana and it led to a murderous rage. Afterwards, cops say, Tiana fled the apartment and went to a friend’s house where she changed her blood-soaked clothes.

Police and other law enforcement officials immediately began to comb the neighborhood for Tiana, described by neighbors and relatives as a bad seed who was destined for trouble.

Court documents show that last year, Jennifer Browne, the mother of the accused killer, had described her daughter as being mentally ill, a truant and chronic runaway.

But what’s so traumatic is that Ms. Brathwaite ignored warnings from persons who knew Tiana and who told the mother she ashmed to bring the girl into her home. But the Good Samaritan rejected the pleas on the grounds that the Christian thing to do was to be a Good Samaritan and help turn around the’s life where others had failed.

When a child is messed up, the whole community is messed up, Ms. Brathwaite said between sobs. If a child has problems, you help that child.

  Now, she has regrets her action led to Shannon’s death.

The Police believe that after repeatedly stabbing Shannon, Tiana took off the sneakers from the feet of the dying or dead girl, snatched up a cell phone and stole Christmas and birthday gifts belonging to her cousin. When she was arrested, Tiana was reportedly wearing the sneakers and had the cell phone, a Christmas gift, a camera which was the victim’s 16th birthday present and MP3 player.

Just as bad, said police, Tiana showed no remorse, a response that upset Shannon’s mother.

She acted as if nothing was wrong, as if she hadn’t just killed someone, said Ms. Brathwaite.

The picture which relatives painted of the deceased was one of a quiet, church-going teenager who preferred to be at home with her mother than hitting the streets of Brooklyn with her friends.

The second year student of Vanguard High School, said her aunt, Marilyn Brathwaite, wasn’t a child who runs around. She was a good child. She loved to dance.

Doreen Brathwaite, the maternal grandmother, is still shaking her head, unable to comprehend the shocking events.

I can’t believe it, she said. I can’t believe I saw my granddaughter laying down dead. I can’t believe it.

But the victim’s mother is convinced jealousy, not mental illness triggered Tiana’s rage and caused the death of her daughter.

When (Tiana) had a problem, she would text my daughter and talk to my daughter, Ms. Brathwaite recalled.

She always said my daughter was an influence. But she was always jealous of my daughter and she wanted her stuff.

 

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