They came together to honor the Brownings, a family known as a pillar in the Cockeysville community: Loving parents police say were murdered by their oldest child, younger sons killed by their big brother.
About 500 people attended a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening at County Home Park for successful attorney John Browning, 45, his wife, Tamara, 44, and sons Gregory 14, and Benjamin, 11, who were found dead in their home Saturday.
“Don?t remember how the Brownings died. Remember how they lived,” Rev. Bill Brown of Epworth United Methodist Church, told the mourners who cried, held hands and sang religious songs. “A lot of people have been asking me the hardest question: Why? Why did God let this happen? I don?t know why, but I know God didn?t let this happen.”
Baltimore County police have been struggling with the same question, but as of Tuesday had produced no motive for the killing, which shocked classmates, teachers and neighbors, who said accused son Nicholas, 15, never exhibited any signs of sociopathic behavior or mental illness.
“I coached Nick and I wouldn?t believe anything until it?s been confirmed, because Nick wouldn?t hurt anybody,” said Cockeysville area lacrosse coach John Kenneally. “It?s totally out of character. Something snapped. Something went wrong. Nick wouldn?t hurt a fly.”
Police said Nicholas fatally shot his parents and brothers as they slept Friday night, then dumped the murder weapon, his father?s gun, in nearby bushes. Nicholas spent and all day Saturday with friends, before contacting police upon returning home.
Though he?d recently been disagreeingwith his father, Nicholas Browning did not have a confrontation with his dad Friday night, said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey, who added there?s still “no explanation” for the deaths.
Some classmates who rode the school bus with Browning said he?d recently begun talking about killing his parents, but they thought he was joking.
Browning?s former attorney, Steve Silverman, told a Baltimore County judge Monday that the teen is “traumatized” by the death of his family and might have falsely confessed to the killing.
Browning, an “honors student,” was close to becoming an Eagle Scout and also plays the cello, Silverman said.
Called an “all-American family” by neighbors, John Browning practiced law with the Towson firm Royston, Mueller, McLean & Reid, and Tamara Browning was a PTA president.
At the vigil Tuesday evening, Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover, who lives in the community, said he hoped neighbors could forgive Nicholas.
“I?m going to challenge everybody here tonight to forgive Nick,” Stover said. “I don?t know why Nick did that and it puts chills down my spine.”
