A sister lost one brother to gun violence. Now she must bury another.

Even though he couldn’t really swim, Tyrone Howard Brown loved being by the water.

In 2020, early into the pandemic, he, his family and friends of a sister traveled to Niagara Falls for a week-long trip. It was the first time that Tyrone had been on a road trip, but his sister said he’d had the time of his life.

“It was probably the best week that I can remember,” said Tia Corry, Tyrone’s oldest sister.

Corry last saw her brother a month before she received terrible news.

On July 13, Tyrone, 17, was found shot in a crashed car in the parking lot of the Birches apartments in Silver Spring’s White Oak neighborhood. Police said Tyrone, who was suffering from an “apparent gunshot wound,” later died at a hospital.

Corry said Tyrone did not have a car and does not know how he drove from D.C. to Silver Spring.

A Montgomery County police spokesperson said that there have been no updates on the case and that it is an active, ongoing investigation.

When Corry got a call from her sister telling her what had happened, she didn’t believe it at first, but she could hear in her sister’s voice that they had lost their brother. The tragedy came about five years after Corry lost another brother to gun violence.

“I said out loud, ‘I can’t do this again,’” Corry said. “I remember dropping the phone and banging on my steering wheel and crying.”

Corry said her brother, at 3 months old, was left at the doorstep of her father. Corry, 18 at the time and working at a Blockbuster Video store, said that she, her friends and her cousins helped raise Tyrone. His father, living in Greenbelt, also helped raise him until he was 7 years old.

“Academics was extremely important to my dad, and Tyrone was a great student,” Corry said. “He taught Tyrone how to be a respectable young man.”

When her father had a stroke, Child Protective Services became involved and took Tyrone to a group home.

Tyrone, who was still living in a group home at the time of his death, often told his sisters about wanting to run his own business.

“That boy was loved, and he knew he was loved before he left this earth,” Corry said.

Corry has already buried one brother, Thomas Corry Jr., who was shot at a Forestville convenience store in 2017. Burying another, she said, would be just as hard.

Julia Phillips believes her nephew’s death was preventable. Phillips, who lives in Florida, remembered spending nine years of her life in foster care until she aged out of the system. Phillips said the lack of resources her nephew received growing up contributed to struggles he faced.

“I was Tyrone at one point, and I feel like the system failed him,” Phillips said.

Phillips said one of her favorite memories with Tyrone was in 2010, when he stayed with her for a month after she had moved from the area.

“Tyrone was the happiest child,” Phillips said. “We made cookies and watched cartoons together. There was nothing negative about that time.”

Corry described Tyrone as a “very bubbly kid” who loved to be around his family and enjoyed playing basketball. Tyrone’s family and friends recently held a vigil for him, where Corry spoke of how she’d remember him.

“Tyrone was a soul that was out here to love,” Corry said at the vigil. “That beautiful smile will never be forgotten. Those eyes will never be forgotten. Tyrone is forever young.”