Friends Hurt, Family Haunted After Va. Teen Is Slain by Officer

Katie Burton, left, and Susan Rauch, former classmates of Brown's, read a newspaper clipping left among mementos placed on a fence near the IHOP where Brown was killed. (By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)

"You step in front of a car, and obviously, you are going to feel in danger," she said. "That cop just ended what would have been an amazing future."

Rauch and Katie Burton, 18, another Annandale graduate, seethed as they looked at the memorial. They questioned the statement by police that the young men had left the restaurant without paying. One theory circulating yesterday among family and friends was that the four had left the money on the table instead of paying at the register.

"Aaron was one of those guys you'll never find again," Rauch said as Burton nodded. They described him as constantly cracking jokes, dancing, laughing down the school's hallways. They said he was handsome, an amazing guitarist and the kind of friend you could come to if you were having a "little breakdown."

"He was one of those guys that if you were a girl, you'd be lucky to date," Rauch said. "He had long hair, so people thought of him as a rocker, but everyone loved him: the preps, the rockers -- everyone."

Bertsch, the police spokeswoman, wouldn't go into much detail about the shooting, saying the department is conducting a criminal investigation as well as an internal one. The case will be reviewed by the FBI for possible civil rights violations, something she said is standard for deadly force or other high-profile cases.

"Obviously, the officer is under investigation, and a young man is dead," Bertsch said. "To be fair, we would never discuss eyewitness accounts."

As about 20 friends and relatives clung to one another at the Brown home last night and sobbed, his parents spoke calmly about wanting people to donate money to a charity, Guitars Not Guns, instead of giving flowers. The group gives music lessons to at-risk youngsters.

The Browns said, however, that they will pursue unanswered questions.

They said that they were not told promptly about the location of their son's body and that they believe he would have liked to donate his organs. Police also told them that four or five bullets hit the car, including one in the driver's side rear door and one on a rear quarter-panel.

"How could that happen if the vehicle was coming straight at him?" Jeff Brown asked.

They said they would await the investigation but were inclined to view the shooting as an overreaction.

"If their policy in a situation like this is to throw themselves in front of a moving vehicle and then use deadly force, maybe that policy needs to be reviewed," Jeff Brown said.

Dozens of people debated the question of responsibility on the Web site for WJLA (Channel 7), with some defending the officer and others questioning the use of force. Some said they were simply in mourning.

"A lot of it just doesn't make sense," said Colin Agnew, 20. "All I know is one of my best friends is dead."

Agnew said he and Brown became blood brothers at a scouting event last year, when they were throwing away some crab claws.

"He cut the back of his hand, and he cut my palm," Agnew said. "He grabbed my hand and slapped it down on his. It was just something really personal and an intimate moment between us. No matter what happens now, part of him is with me."

Agnew said he met Brown when they were students at North Springfield Elementary School. They were in Eagle Scouts together for a year before Brown sat next to Agnew one day on the bus and said: "Hi, my name's Aaron. What troop are you in?" Agnew recalled yesterday. "I said, 'We've been in the same troop for a year, you moron.' "

The friendship was sealed. Agnew said Brown didn't have "a bad bone in him. He wouldn't say anything bad about anybody unless it was a celebrity he didn't like. There wasn't a way you couldn't like him."