The Murders of Karen Clarke and Leroy “B.J.” Brown Jr. (Connecticut)

The mother and son had just gotten home from a trip to the store and had no sooner brought their bags into their Bridgeport, Connecticut home when they heard the doorbell ring. As Karen Clarke turned the doorknob to see who was on the other side, she and her son B.J. Brown Jr. were ambushed and gunned down in their own home.

This case has eye witnesses, it has clear and critical evidence, it has a strong motive, and I’m here to tell you that it has an ending…But I wouldn’t say it has justice in its entirety. The rug was pulled out from under the feet of Karen and B.J.’s family earlier this year when they learned one of the perpetrators would see the outside of prison walls long before they ever thought possible.

The Discovery

It was around 11:16 a.m. on January 8, 1999 and a coworker of 30-year old Karen Clarke was standing at Karen’s duplex on Earl Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut trying to figure out why the dedicated U-Haul employee hadn’t shown up to work. She’d also missed another co-worker’s going away party the night before, and none of it made any sense to the people who knew Karen as passionate and punctual.

According to an Associated Press report published in the Hartford Courant, Karen’s co-worker stepped into the house to find a devastating scene. At the top of the stairs lay Karen’s 8-year old son Leroy Brown, who went by B.J. He was the victim of multiple gunshot wounds. Just feet away was his mother Karen who also suffered gunshot wounds. Karen’s outstretched arm gave the impression that she was reaching for the phone to call for help when she was gunned down.

When police arrived at the scene and the investigation of the double-homicide began, they came face to face with the unconscionable reality and apparent motive for these senseless killings. B.J. may have been only a second grader, a kid who loved basketball and reading, but he was also expected to play an important role in a pending murder trial. B.J. was a key witness, and authorities had reason to believe that this murder was intended to silence the young child’s voice.

Karen and B.J.

Karen Clarke was born in Jamaica on July 30, 1968. According to an in-depth piece written by Joel Lang for the Hartford Courant published in June of 1999, Karen was a teenager when her family immigrated to the Fort Lauderdale area of Florida, where much of her family still lives. Karen later moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut with her cousin Janet Gordon, who says the two were more like sisters.

Karen’s son, Leroy, B.J. Brown Jr., was born in Brooklyn on March 27, 1990. At first he lived with his grandparents while Karen established herself in Bridgeport. The mother and son always had a close bond, and she fought to give him the best life she could. Karen was above all else a mother. She worked hard to raise B.J. to be the man she knew he could be, and B.J. – even at a young age – proved he was destined for all the greatness his mother dreamed for him.

By all reports, B.J. was a special kid. He was intelligent and mature for his age, and a natural leader. Multiple relatives recounted how even at just 8-years old he confidently planned to be America’s first Black President.

Karen’s family described her as a go-getter, someone who would achieve anything she set her mind to. She was brilliant and passionate, and always spoke her mind and expressed herself in every way possible. Karen’s family credit her hard working attitude and love for family as the thing that kept them all together.

In 1997, Karen had recently been promoted at U-Haul to traffic manager, and was excited to build a home with her son and her fiance Rudolph Snead Jr. They had been together for two years and she fully planned to marry Rudolph that August. But over the next few years, the dreams they held for all of their lives were ripped apart.

The Peelers in Bridgeport

In the early 1990s, the city of Bridgeport was almost bankrupt and known as Connecticut’s quote-unquote “murder capital.” One witness later described his first-hand experience in Bridgeport in the 90s as, “Addicts robbing other addicts, dealers beating addicts that owed them money and women selling their bodies for a ten dollar crack rock. People being stabbed, beaten or shot was par for the course as I roamed the streets looking for my next hit.”

It’s in the city of Bridgeport where two men, brothers Adrian Peeler and Russell Peeler, started a large-scale drug trafficking operation and began to take over. According to court documents, the Peeler brothers’ profits were estimated to be as much as $38,000 per week.

In the words of Karen’s brother Oswald Clarke, the Peelers and their operation were well known by the community and Bridgeport Police. Oswald called them the untouchables of Bridgeport, and he felt like law enforcement looked the other way. Adrian and Russell’s mother, Sheila Peeler, was a prominent Bridgeport Police officer and their aunt worked in the records department. But Sheila died of cancer in 1993 at the age of 43, leaving her sons a house and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It has been suggested that the brothers used that inheritance to start their drug trafficking operation.

In November of 1995, Adrian Peeler was arrested for narcotics sales, but even being on bond couldn’t stop him. On January 19, 1996, he was arrested and charged for reckless endangerment and risk of injury for firing several rounds of a “machine gun type weapon” into an apartment with four children inside. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to concurrent terms of 7 years’ imprisonment with 30 months to be served and 3 years’ probation.

Over the next few years, the lives of Karen Clarke and her son would become entangled in the web the Peelers had woven in Bridgeport.

The Murder of Rudolph Snead Jr.

In early September of 1997, Karen Clarke’s fiance, Rudolph Snead Jr., had been in an apparent ongoing dispute over money with Russell Peeler. On September 2, Russell was riding around in a car with three other people when he noticed Rudolph’s car in the parking lot of a Bridgeport barbershop. After leaving the barbershop, Rudolph drove to a gas station. He had two seven-year-old kids with him, one of which was his fiance Karen’s son, B.J. Brown, Jr.

Russell Peeler waited for Rudolph’s car to exit the gas station and then followed him onto the Lindley Street entrance ramp to Route 25 in Bridgeport. As he drove up the ramp, Rudolph, presumably realizing he was being followed, slowed down and pulled off to the side of the road. Russell’s car pulled up alongside him.

From the passenger seat, Russell pulled out a .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun and fired several shots into Rudolph’s car at him. Rudolph was injured by the gunshots, but was still able to drive himself to St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport for treatment. While in the hospital, Rudolph and the two boys present in the car were interviewed by Officer Robert Shapiro of Bridgeport police. Rudolph was able to identify Russell as the man who shot him, and Russell was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

The Murder of Rudolph Snead Jr.

In January of 1998, during pretrial discovery in the criminal case for the attempted murder shooting on Lindley Street, Russell was provided with a police report which identified then 8-year old B.J. Brown Jr. as a witness.

Now, Russell posted bond on the attempted murder charge and authorities knew that Rudolph was not safe with the man who shot him – the man who allegedly attempted to kill him – out in the community. So, the following month, an assistant state’s attorney filed a motion to hold Russell’s trial for attempted murder sooner rather than later because Rudolph had said that he and his family were being threatened.

Apparently Rudolph’s report of Russell’s alleged threats was not good enough. Because Russell was out in the community when on May 29, 1998, he tracked down Rudolph Snead at the barbershop a second time to finish what he’d started.

The barbershop was busy when 28-year-old Rudolph was shot seven times while talking on the telephone. One of the half a dozen customers in the shop told police Rudolph called out as he was dying, “it was Russell, yo.” But all the witnesses claimed they couldn’t see the gunman’s face under his hood.

According to the Hartford Courant, people began to say that only an innocent child would be brave enough to testify against the “stone-cold killer.” And approximately one week after Rudolph’s murder, without prior contact or encouragement from police, Karen Clarke brought her son B.J. to the Bridgeport Police. B.J. identified Russell Peeler as the gunman who attempted to kill Rudolph in the first shooting.

While no eye witnesses came forward to identify Russell as the killer in the second shooting, ballistics tests on shell casing retrieved from the murder and the drive-by were analyzed, showing that the shots had been fired from the same gun. So, on June 15, 1998, Russell was arrested and charged with Rudolph’s murder.

Russell was once again able to post bond, this time with the condition that he wear an ankle monitor and have a 9 p.m. curfew.

According to court documents from a lawsuit Karen’s mother Pearline Clarke brought against the City of Bridgeport and its police chief at the time, Thomas J. Sweeney, on the day of Russell’s release Bridgeport Police Sergeant Michael Kerwin wrote an internal memo, saying Karen was a witness to her fiance Rudolph’s murder, that the alleged murderer had been released, and he had a history of retaliating against witnesses. The memo stated that Karen’s address should be “flagged for an appropriate response,” if she called the police.

The next day, by request from the Bridgeport State’s Attorney’s office, Bridgeport Police placed police cars in front of Karen and B.J.’s home to protect them from possible retribution by the Peelers. However, six days later on July 8, 1998, the police cars were removed because Russell Peeler was sent back to jail. His bond had been increased from $250,000 to $400,000 and he failed to post the additional amount.

But it only lasted a few days, because on July 13, Russell posted the higher bond and was once again released. And even though the threat was back on the streets, no police cars were ever again assigned to protect Karen and B.J.’s home. That same same month, the mother and son moved to their new home on Earl Avenue, which happened to be across the street from one of the houses used by the Peeler brothers in their trafficking operation.

Karen Clarke and B.J. Brown’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.