How a gun test led to Fort Worth man’s arrest in 2016 murder once thought suicide
On the afternoon of Sept. 10, 2016, Isaac “Pablo” Brewer, Marc Young and two other people were in a home in the 8900 block of Preakness Circle.
Brewer and Young were in the kitchen, while Young’s girlfriend and Young’s father were in other rooms in the house.
At some point, a shot went off in the kitchen, and Brewer fell to the floor.
By the time Fort Worth patrol officers arrived at the home, the gun used in the shooting was washed and moved to a bathroom, according to a warrant.
Initially, Brewer’s death was ruled a suicide because Young told police Brewer had a gun, looked down the barrel of it and the gun went off.
No soot or gunpowder was present, and other tests were insufficient for comparison to samples taken from people in the home, police said.
But a gunshot distance determination test — which was misplaced in 2018 and found this summer — led to Young’s arrest on July 21, according to the warrant obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The test showed the gun was fired more than 2 feet away from the victim.
The warrant noted that on June 25, Fort Worth police talked about the distance test with an official at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, who informed police the test had been completed on Dec. 13, 2018. Detectives said they didn’t receive the results of the test in 2018.
“Our records indicate that the report was emailed to Fort Worth PD on Dec. 14, 2018,” said Carol Walker, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Homicide detectives said their investigation is ongoing and they declined to comment on whether they had a record of receiving the 2018 email.
Young has been charged with the murder of Brewer, 19, according to Tarrant County criminal court records.
Young, 24, remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $75,000 bond on the murder charge. He also was being held on a probation violation.
The warrant written by Detective E.C. Pate gave this account of the shooting:
On the afternoon of Sept. 10, 2016, Young’s father told police he was in the bathroom of Young’s house when he heard what he thought was a firecracker.
He went to kitchen, where he saw Brewer on the floor. He tried to call 911, but his cell phone would not work. He went to a neighbor, who called 911.
On that day, Young’s girlfriend was in a bedroom when she heard gunfire. She walked to kitchen, where Young told her that Brewer had shot himself.
Young told detectives he went to the kitchen to get himself something to eat and found Brewer holding a pistol, according to the warrant.
Young said Brewer was pointing the gun at himself as Young told him to stop.
At some point, Young told police, the gun went off, fatally wounding Brewer.
Young said he picked up the gun and took the magazine out and cleared the chamber to make the gun safe. He put the gun in the bathroom while his girlfriend called 911.
Young told police he tried to do CPR on Brewer before emergency crews arrived.
Young denied cleaning the gun even though police reported the weapon appeared to have been washed or rinsed because it was wet when officers found it, according to the warrant.
Investigators used gunshot residue adhesive stubs to test everyone in the home, and the grip and trigger of the Ruger pistol were swabbed for DNA. Those swabs would be compared with the people in the house.
The tests were insufficient for comparison, according to the warrant.
In January 2018, Dr. Nizam Peerwani, the chief medical examiner, told a detective that the victim’s gunshot wound was from a bullet fired from a distance greater than 35 to 42 inches., and there was no soot or gunpowder present.
Peerwani suggested a distance determination test be conducted.
The test determined that the pistol was farther than 2 feet from the victim when it was discharged, according to the warrant.
In a July 7 interview with Fort Worth police, Young again confirmed that there was no one else in the kitchen at the time of the shooting and said that Brewer had shot himself.
Young repeatedly denied shooting Brewer, according to the warrant.
