The Murder of Rashawn Brazell has become one of the most horrific murder cases in the state of New York.
In February 2005, after disappearing from his home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 19-year-old Brazell's dismembered body parts were found in garbage bags strewn throughout the borough. Though his story was initially refused coverage in most mainstream media outlets, it incited responses from bloggers and activists argued that his murder received limited coverage because he was a black gay working-class male.
Rashawn's family reported that on the morning of February 14, 2005, Rashawn was scheduled to meet his accountant and then meet his mother for lunch in Manhattan. At 7:30 that morning, an unknown person rang the apartment building's security buzzer and Rashawn went down to meet him. According to other witnesses, Rashawn met a man outside his Brooklyn, New York apartment and the two men entered the subway together at the Gates Avenue station. Witnesses believe the two exited at the Nostrand Avenue station in Bedford Stuyvesant a short time later. Rashawn was never seen alive again. On February 18, 2005, the New York Post reported that two bags full of body parts were found on the tracks at the station, and the parts were positively identified through fingerprints as being Rashawn Brazell. On February 19, 2005, the New York Daily News also reported on the murder. NYPD detectives have kept the case active and have been through the country searching for clues.
America's Most Wanted has profiled the case five times on TV and three times on the radio. The most recent airing was in August 2008.[1]