‘I love her and I miss her’: Family in mourning after murder-suicide rocks Brockton neighborhood

BROCKTON, Mass. — Family members say Carlos Brown doted over his yard at 524 Ash St. Evidence of that: the perennials along the sidewalk, situated with razor precision.

But the landscape apparently gave no hint to the tumult inside the house shared by Brown and his wife, Sheron Trowers. The couple, both around 60, could often be heard fighting, neighbor Carole Wright said. One time she felt compelled to call the police.

“She was in the driveway screaming, ‘Please, someone, call the police.’ So I called the police,” Wright remembered.

But that was the last time she intervened, after getting significant blowback from Brown.

“He was so mad at me that I just disassociated from them and never talked to them again,” Wright said. “I didn’t know it would come to this. It’s a horrible, awful, awful thing.”

The horrible thing that happened took place early Tuesday morning around 1 a.m. Tuesday. Police said Trowers, returning home from a trip to Jamaica to bury an uncle, was ambushed in the driveway -- and shot multiple times by Brown. Trowers was later pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Medical Center.

“Brockton Police then entered the home and found 61-year-old Carlos Brown deceased in the living room of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” said Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz.

Cruz called the shootings a murder-suicide and said there was a history of domestic violence calls to the home. At one time, a restraining order separated the couple.

“Unfortunately, especially with domestic violence cases, it’s not unusual for restraining orders to be brought and then time goes by and things cool down and restraining orders get dismissed,” Cruz said. “And people get back together.”

Brown and Trowers had been companions for decades and raised children together -- but only got married about five years ago, according to relatives. They said she worked as a program manager for a group home specializing in schizophrenic residents. Carlos Brown, they said, worked as a painter.

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Brockton shooting 2 wounded

Daughter Lauren Brown, who was looking forward to seeing her mother after her four-day trip to Jamaica, said she was in the house when the murder-suicide occurred, and sleeping upstairs.

“I woke up around midnight,” she said. “I woke up to screaming.”

Prior to that, she said her mother tried calling her cell, but by the time she answered, the call had dropped.

“I didn’t even know my Mom’s body was in the back of the house until I saw her luggage,” Lauren Brown said. “And when the police told me they think she passed, I literally fell to the ground. I literally fell to my knees. I literally fell... I said, ‘No, she really can’t be gone.’”

Cousin Wayne Trowers said the family never saw any hint that Brown would engage in such violence. He last saw Sheron just before she was killed when, on the way home from the airport, she and another cousin diverted to Wayne’s Brockton house for a late supper. That other cousin, Marky, then dropped Sheron Trowers at her house.

“The street was filled with police cars,” Wayne Trowers said. “And we talked to one of the cops and he said, yes, she’s deceased. And we just started crying.”

The tears have likely just begun.

“I don’t know why my Dad did this to her,” said Lauren Brown. “I really don’t know. I just pray every day that she knows I love her and I miss her and I’m so sorry.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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