DAVENPORT, Fla. – A mother is seeking answers a week after she says her son was carjacked and gunned down while on vacation.
Lorrie Brown spoke to News 6 from California where she is a city councilwoman in Ventura.
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She flew to Florida to meet with detectives at the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office after her son, 22-year-old Jeremiah Brown, was discovered dead in Davenport.
“I’m still trying to make sense of it all,” Lorrie Brown said. “Jeremiah was a baby. He was my love bug. He was the youngest.”
Lorrie Brown said Jeremiah Brown was born and raised in California. He moved to Georgia to start his life where he met his girlfriend.
Lorrie Brown added the pair saved up to drive down to the Orlando area and stay in an Airbnb with their kids and some friends.
“They arrived Tuesday and essentially spent one day at their luxury vacation rental in Davenport,” said Brown. “They were eating pizza, swimming in the pool, and less than 48 hours later early Thursday morning, he was gone.”
Lorrie Brown said her son was on the way to the store when he was carjacked. Deputies in Osceola County are staying tightlipped about their investigation but released part of their incident report, which shows they are investigating a shooting.
Lorrie Brown said she is concerned her son may have been targeted as a visitor staying in a vacation rental.
“It seems as if tourist communities where people stay in vacation rentals like Airbnb is that those communities seem to be targeted,” she said. “It’s easy to shoot someone and drive away because they don’t know who they are. You don’t care who they are, and in your world, (that) doesn’t matter.”
She said her son, whom she described as a hardworking family man, leaves behind two children and his loved ones, who are left asking why this happened.
“Why didn’t they just take the car and not his life? Or why were they in Florida in the first place? Or why did he have to go to the store?” Lorrie Brown asked. “Gun violence across the country has shown us there is no good reason why, and there’s a lot of young people getting killed. My son was 22.”
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information related to this case to contact them at (407) 348-2222.
Jeremiah Brown’s family is planning to have a funeral service for him in California where he was born and raised. His mother told News 6 they are working on raising those funds right now. If you want to help, you can donate to their GoFundMe.