Slain Benedict College teacher’s friends, family: ‘Robbed of a beautiful human being’

As the Benedict College community mourns the loss of one of its own, many of Randall Brown’s fraternity brothers and coworkers choose to remember him as someone who considered everyone in his life as his family.

The West Columbia-native graduated from Benedict College and earned his master’s degree in counseling from Webster University. Brown, 34, was working in the college’s child development center, where he taught kindergarteners and elementary-school-aged children the importance of success. When he wasn’t teaching or spending time with the members of his fraternity, he was with his three young children and family.

But Omari Dyson, Benedict College Child Development Center’s executive director and Brown’s supervisor, said Brown had a knack for teaching and loved the kids he worked with.

“He was the spirit of the center in the sense that he was always doing something with the children where he was chanting or singing with them and being energetic,” Dyson said. “We were robbed of a beautiful human being last week, and it’s a tragedy.”

Just after 3:30 a.m. Sunday, Richland County sheriff’s deputies responded to the 5000 block of Brickyard Road in reference to a man lying in the roadway. When deputies arrived, they found Brown with a gunshot wound to the head, and his vehicle missing from the scene. Several days later, 24-year-old Donald Harper Jr. was arrested in Daytona Beach, Fla., after driving Brown’s vehicle to celebrate spring break. Harper was taken into custody after a high-speed chase with police and confessed to Daytona Beach police chief Mike Chitwood that he shot and killed Brown execution style a few days earlier in Richland County.

Dyson said Brown has left a lasting effect on all of the students he taught and mentored.

He said Brown often would teach the children chants he learned by being a member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at Benedict College, somewhat of a rival of Dyson’s own Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

“He took a Sigma chant and converted it for use in the classroom,” Dyson said. “Whenever the Alpha members hear it we are like, ‘Oh, boy.’ They are going to have the Sigma world in their brains, so when they go to college they are going to remember this is Mr. Brown and pledge Sigma.”

Dyson said Brown recently wanted to throw a small Valentine’s Day party for the kids in his class who may not be as fortunate as others so they could all celebrate the holiday together.

“It was the big party with cotton candy, pizza, music and the kids were jumping around,” Dyson said. “There was dancing and face painting, too. It was not a small affair when it came to Randall Brown; it was an event.”

Timothy Heyward, Brown’s fraternity brother, said Brown was responsible for introducing many more young men into the fraternity through his work with the Sigma Beta Club, a youth outreach program in which Brown counseled both young men and women through high school, graduation and entrance into college.

Heyward said he had known Brown, more commonly known to his loved ones by his family-given nickname of “Duck,” for more than a decade. The two went through the intake process for their fraternity together, making them “line brothers.”

One thing Heyward distinctly remembers about Brown was that he had “no rhythm.”

“In fraternities, we have ‘party-hops’ or ‘steps,’” Heyward said. “(Brown) had no rhythm when it came to that, but he would help organize the outfits, organizing practices or getting extra things to set up for our step shows.”

Tony Cato, another of Brown’s fraternity brothers and band director at Wilson High School in Florence, said Brown was also the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back and the food from his table if you needed it.

“I will never forget that when I needed someone the most, he would be there,” Cato said. “I lost my father at the end of last year, and when I looked up he was there. We have a saying in our fraternity that a brother is always there, and he exemplified that.”

Heyward said the fraternity is planning on holding an annual picnic in Brown’s honor. It will be open to the public and held each March in honor of Brown’s birth month. Heyward said it will also be a platform for people to speak out against gun violence, the same kind that took his friend’s life.

“It’s a major loss to society,” Heyward said. “It’s a loss for his kids, his parents, his sisters and his fraternity brothers. The fraternity lost a great member and motivator.”

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 8:14 PM with the headline "Slain Benedict College teacher’s friends, family: ‘Robbed of a beautiful human being’."