When Isiah Tariq Brown was a senior at Olney High School in 2009, he was voted the person who got along with everyone.
“He loved his friends,” his mother Nicole Brown said. “He was outgoing and very generous and compassionate. He was a leader amongst his friends.”
From Isiah’s 2009 Olney High School yearbook
Isiah was born Jan. 26, 1991 in Philadelphia and grew up in Olney. He was an only child, and so he and Nicole had an especially tight bond. Bringing her son into the world was a positive change in Nicole’s life.
“He was my everything. He and I were very close. It was always us,” she said. “Having him made me appreciate life more. I had a reason to live. I had a reason to do better, to continue my education and make a better life.”
Isiah was still trying to carve out a career path. He always enjoyed math, and he was taking real estate classes at the Community College of Philadelphia.
He never got a chance to achieve his goals. Isiah was shot and killed outside of a convenience store in Hunting Park on May 28, 2013. No arrests have been made.
“I haven’t had closure and I still pray for that,” Nicole said. “I want someone to pay for what they’ve done. He was 22 years old and still had his life ahead of him.”
Nicole used to drive him to CCP, and they would go back and forth flipping to different radio stations, and she still can’t listen to the radio in the car to this day, almost six years later.
Hundreds attended Isiah’s candelight vigil
Isiah had a sentimental side and family meant a lot to him. Nicole discovered a box in his room where he kept all of the greeting cards he had received over the years, from “Mommy loves you” cards from when he was a child to a congratulations card from his aunt to commemorate him passing his driver license test.
Isiah loved music and loved to shop. He enjoyed playing Scrabble and he could watch the Damon Wayans movie “Major Payne” over and over. He was also passionate about riding dirt bikes and doing tricks.
He had a playful side and would hide behind doors and jump out to scare his mother. Nicole also remembers him dunking her in a pool when he was a teenager.
Nicole is proud of how she raised her son, and wants him to be remembered as the good person he was.
“He had a loving heart. He had an affectionate smile and a great sense of humor,” she said. “I feel like he’s my angel and I feel like he’s always with me.”
On what would have been his 28th birthday on Jan. 26, Nicole plans to visit Isiah’s resting place at Westminster Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd.
