Long Beach Inmate's Family Says Prison was Negligent

The family of Antwan Brown, the Long Beach man who was killed in a fight with another prisoner at Nassau County Correctional Center Saturday, questions how he could have died while under police supervision.

Brown’s aunt, Asia Little of Hempstead, told Newsday that her family spoke with homicide detectives on Sunday, and she and her family suspect the prison in East Meadow was negligent in her nephew’s death. Said Little:

"We believe there was some negligence. We have an idea of what's happened, but the gap is so big. His past convictions have nothing to do with what  happened to him in jail."

Brown, 26, was before 7 a.m. Saturday, suffered several contusions and, shortly after, was pronounced dead by staff at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. The other prisoner, who has remained unidentified, was taken into custody and homicide detectives and the state Commission of Correction continue to the incident.

Brown was imprisoned after he was in West Hempstead on Nov. 25, 2010. According to detectives, Brown argued with a 24-year-old woman while sitting in a car in the parking lot of White Castle, at 19 Hempstead Tpke., at about 3:55 a.m. and tried to take her bag that contained $200, repeatedly hit her in the head and face and fled on foot. Shortly after, police officers located and arrested Brown, and while in custody at the Fifth Precinct he continually resisted verbal directions and struggled with officers, with one officer sustaining facial injuries, police said.

Last Wednsday, Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting the officer in the case, and records show that the other chargers were covered by the plea.

Brown was paroled in September 2010 from state prison, according to Newsday, in which the newspaper referenced a shooting outside an Island Park night club in October 2004 that led to his imprisonment. Patch learned that Brown was arrested and charged with shooting a man and a woman, and his mother was charged with hindering prosecution in connection with the case in October 2004.

At the time, Lt. Detective Gregory Detwiller of the Fourth Precinct said that Brown fired shots from a .357 Magnum at a 19-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman as they exited the front doors of the now closed Club Heat, at 3942 Long Beach Rd. in Island Park, at about 3:55 a.m. on Oct. 24.

Prior to the shooting Brown and the male victim exchanged heated words, and Brown produced a gun and fired a round that struck the female victim in her left thigh, shattering her femur, and shot the male victim, hitting him in the left chest area, according to police.

The male victim ran from the scene toward Long Beach Motor Inn on Austin Boulevard, where he requested help from the clerk at the desk, who phoned police. As the victim ran to the motel, Brown allegedly chased him and fired at him again. Police said that acquaintances of the male victim chased and tackled Brown to the ground in the parking lot near the Outback restaurant and took his gun away from him.

At this point, police said, Brown's mother, Diana Little, pulled up in her car and helped her son escape the scene. "Wherever she took him, we're not sure," Detwiller said at the time. "But she was identified at the scene, and when we brought her in for questioning she was very uncooperative. She wouldn't tell us where she took him."

Brown later surrendered at the Fourth Precinct headquarters in Hewlett, and was charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree criminal use of a firearm and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Police charged Little with second-degree hindering prosecution.