How Former NFL Player Sergio Brown Ended Up Arrested in Connection With His Mother's Killing

Who is Sergio brown!! How Former NFL Player Sergio Brown Ended Up Arrested in Connection With His Mother's Killing

Who is Sergio Brown?

Sergio was born May 22, 1988, in Maywood to Myrtle and Mario Brown, a onetime college basketball star at Texas A&M. 

In past interviews, Sergio provided childhood highlights like being faster than all the other neighborhood kids and performing with a neighborhood tumbling group. But his family, which included brother Nick, suffered a blow when Mario died of lung cancer in 2002. Sergio was 14 and just starting at Proviso East High School, where he played football and competed in track and field.

Sergio was a four-star safety recruit out of high school and chose to attend Notre Dame, eventually starting for the Irish as a junior while earning his degree in business marketing.

When relatives of Myrtle Jean Simmons-Brown and Sergio Brown were unable to get ahold of either mother or son on Sept. 15, they called the cops.

The next day at around 2 p.m., Myrtle's body was found by a creek near the home she shared with Sergio in the Chicago suburb of Maywood, according to police, who said at the time that they were unable to locate her son. Cause of death was determined to be multiple injuries due to assault, the Cook County Medical Examiner confirmed to E! News, and her case was ruled a homicide.

"It's a sad but hopeful time, and we will all get through this together," Myrtle's artist son Nick Brown wrote in a Sept. 17 Instagram post. "Mom always told me, 'tough times don't last' and our last conversation about tough times being temporary is my beacon of hope."

The painter thanked his 73-year-old mother for being "strong, caring, diligent, fancy, funny," and for supporting his craft. He added, "My brother Sergio is still missing. If anyone knows where he is I want him to know that I love you and please come home."

Several weeks later, Sergio was arrested on a warrant for first-degree murder in connection with their mother's death. The 35-year-old was taken into custody Oct. 10 in San Diego, Calif., where he's currently awaiting extradition to Illinois to face murder charges, according to the Maywood Police Department. Public records show his next court date is Nov. 13.

E! News has reached out to Maywood Police and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office for comments on the pending case but has yet to hear back.

But events of the past month suggest a shocking spiral for the NFL journeyman, who was once known for his celebratory backflips after Notre Dame victories during his college football days.

At the time, he credited his mother for his skills.

"Me and my brother were always just goofing around in the house," Brown explained to student paper The Observer in 2009. "It really started after the movie 3 Ninjas came out. We just started trying to flip and stuff outside with mattresses. My mom started getting scared, so she said if we're going to do all this flipping, we might as well learn how to do it so we won't hurt ourselves. I've just been flipping since."

Sergio has yet to be formally charged and E! News has so far been unable to find out if he has an attorney. But this is what we know about the situation leading up to his arrest:

Officers from the San Diego Police Threat Management Unit along with unspecified other local and federal agencies arrested Sergio on a fugitive warrant for first-degree murder as he crossed back into the U.S. from Mexico on Oct. 10, according to the Maywood Police Department.

Further details of the investigation have not yet been made public. Brown waived extradition during an Oct. 11 court appearance and, per public records, as of Oct. 19 he's being held without bail in San Diego Central Jail.

"Our family is thankful that the Cook County State's Attorney's Office answered our call for urgent and immediate action in the case of our beloved Myrtle Jean Simmons-Brown," the Simmons-Brown family said in a statement. "We are also heartened by the news that Sergio Brown has been apprehended and returned to the United States unharmed. Our family is prayerful that, as the investigation progresses, more answers will become available, shedding light on the circumstances surrounding this heartbreaking incident."