The Assassination of Derwin Brown: DeKalb’s Forgotten True-Crime Story

How a Sheriff’s Election, a Reporter’s Investigation, and a Murder-for-Hire Plot Exposed Deep Corruption in DeKalb County

Conversation has been swirling for weeks around the, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, produced docuseries detailing the scandals, manipulation, sexual exploitation, and alleged murder plots tied to Hip Hop mogul Sean Combs. Yet many have overlooked another documentary that may cut even closer to home for metro Atlanta residents.​

This week marks 25 years since the assassination of DeKalb County sheriff-elect Derwin Brown. On December 15, 2000, Brown was gunned down in his own front yard just after arriving home, moments before he was set to celebrate his wife’s birthday.​

Brown, a veteran DeKalb County police officer with more than two decades on the force, had recently unseated long-time sheriff Sidney Dorsey in a hard-fought election. Rather than accept defeat, Dorsey orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot, paying a hitman to eliminate the man who had ended his political reign.

But the roots of this story stretch back years before the bullets were fired. Its foundation was laid by the dogged investigation of former WSB-TV reporter Dale Cardwell, who followed tips that eventually pulled back the curtain on Dorsey’s secretive, behind-closed-doors corruption.

View WSBTV’s “The Hit: The Assassination of Derwin Brown”