Sheriff-Elect Slaying Investigated

Dec. 20 -- The fatal shooting of DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown has a community in mourning and investigators wondering if his death was in fact, an assassination.

Brown was expected to take office as the new DeKalb County Sheriff Jan. 1, after defeating incumbent Sheriff Sidney Dorsey in a bitter, closely contested election. The sheriff’s department will be meeting on Friday to discuss interim alternatives.

Brown was returning home from a dinner at a local restaurant, where he celebrated his graduation from a sheriff’s training academy, police said.

DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan believes that the slaying was “a professional hit” with Sheriff-elect Brown being shot numerous times in the front yard of his house.

“This is an elected official, who was shot numerous times by someone waiting in ambush,” Morgan said. “It was an assassination.”

The sheriff’s office is not involved in the investigation, and is leaving the investigation up to the FBI and county police.Brown ‘Ruffled A Lot of Feathers’

According to Morgan and other officials, the campaigning over the summer was anything but friendly.

Brown had promised to clean up corruption in the department. According to Morgan, he had already told 38 employees — mostly at the managerial and supervisory levels at the DeKalb County jail — that they would be fired. He later retracted nine of those planned layoffs shortly after making that announcement, Morgan confirmed. He also wanted to perform a full audit of the jail, including the independent contractors who worked with the facility.

“The sheriff-elect promised sweeping reforms,” Morgan said. “He wanted to make sure everything was above board, and that everyone got jobs based on their qualifications.”

Dorsey had been accused of using on-duty deputies to work for his private security company and letting jail inmates work in a home repair program run by his wife.