With justice on the way, Colin Brown's death doesn't sit any easier

A kid shouldn't be in danger when driving in a car with their dad.

Every Friday night, my dad and I ride around St. Louis. City or county, the car could strike any stretch of pavement west of Kingshighway. Sometimes, our car reaches down into the city. Cigars are puffed, conversation takes shape, and the world’s worries disappear for a few hours. It’s a ritual brought on by a friendship that started taking shape when I was a kid.

Count me as the rare kid who liked to hang with his dad no matter what we were doing. A trip to the hardware store? Let’s go. Oh, we have to make a trip to a relative’s house? Count me in. Every time, it was getting into a car with my dad for a drive. The bare essential promise was a ride around town with Dad.

Colin Brown sprung into my mind as I was drinking coffee with the old man. We were parked in a Quik Trip parking lot staring out at pedestrians and cars driving by. The teenager was riding around with his dad last month when a stray bullet struck him. The bullet was meant for somebody else, but that stopped mattering the second it left the weapon. Brown was rushed to a hospital and survived for a few days before dying at the extremely young age of 16.

A 26-year-old man is in custody and has been charged with first-degree murder, but the investigation has only begun. The case will most likely end with two men under the age of 30 being taken off the streets, with one of them departing forever. Two families will splinter and shatter, and ZERO good will come out of this entire ordeal. If there is a glaring example of why St. Louis residents are fleeing to the county or the county of some other state, look no further than the Brown slaying.

He wasn’t going for a walk in a bad neighborhood or breaking bad with his buddies doing something illegal; Colin was riding home with his dad from a hockey game he had just played for CBC. A simple ride home in the city down I-55 should not result in the death of a teenager. Full of energy and thinking about where the game could take him, Colin didn’t get to wake up again. Everything he was going to do after that night was instantly taken away from him due to being in the absolute wrong place at the wrong time, even if that was inside a car.

Good enough to be enraged about even though I have no connection to the family, it makes me think about the idea of losing my 13-year-old son to a senseless but unstoppable tragedy. We don’t live near the death of Brown, but it’s only a few miles away from our neighborhood. What if it shits on another innocent family tomorrow?

If the mayor of St. Louis has any job in 2025 moving forward, it should be stopping teenagers from dying at the hands of gun violence. St. Louis isn’t a fucking war zone, my friends. It shouldn’t be a war zone. A father and son should be able to go for a drive and not feel like shit will fall from the sky and stain them forever.

Friday night in that Quik Trip parking lot with my dad, that’s all I could think about. I felt lucky. Happy to be alive. That’s what we can take away from a tragedy. Live it up as long as you can, because a shit cloud could be waiting to drop change on you at any time.

St. Louis City let Colin Brown down. Putting his killer away for good should only be the start of the remedy. Too many kids are dying in this city for senseless reasons. I wouldn’t hold your breath on justice, either.

Just appreciate every ride with your son, father, mother, daughter, sister, family friend, or good friend. Due to the evil intentions of fellow humans, we never really know when our last sleep will take place.

Rest in peace, Colin. Hey St. Louis, let’s do better tomorrow. Something, anything to push the tide in the positive direction. Talk to someone. Help someone. I don’t know. 16-year-olds dying has little to do with who is President, and everything to do with cracking down on weapons and their location. We don’t have to take them out of ordinary homeowners’ possession, but they can’t be so easy to acquire.

If we control them even a little better, so many Colins get to live an ordinary lifespan.