Police seek help in deaths

Seventeen-year-old Carlton Braswell wrote a song Saturday that he hoped would propel his family out of poverty and away from Harriet Tubman homes to a nicer area of town.

"He said, 'Mom, I made a song to get us out of the 'hood. I'm going to get you into a nice house,'" said his mother, Melinda Doss.

A day later, Mr. Braswell died after being assaulted on Southern Street.

"It was my biggest fear moving to the projects," Ms. Doss said Monday while walking the sidewalk on Southern, "that this would happen to one of my kids."

Chattanooga police still have no leads in the case and are waiting for someone to provide information about what happened.

The assault occurred about noon Sunday in the 1900 block of Southern. Mr. Braswell ran to his house and collapsed on the floor, leaving a trail of blood along the sidewalk into his home, relatives said.

He died in the apartment, but there's no indication of what exactly caused his death, police said. His mother said he was bleeding from the head.

The preliminary report on a cause of death was unavailable late Monday afternoon, according to the Hamilton County Medical Examiner's Office.

"Everyone that knew him knew Carlton was just full of joy," Ms. Doss said. "He's not a bad person."

That no one has spoken up about the incident angers family friend Lakizzie Brown, who said a crowd gathers anytime something loud occurs at Harriet Tubman.

"Somebody saw something," Ms. Brown said. "There's always somebody outside. If anybody knows something, his mother is entitled to know."

Police are searching for leads. But without witnesses, information has been hard to find, said Lt. Tim Carroll, head of the major crimes division.

"It's time for the community to step up and help us out," he said. "Even if it's, 'We heard something,' that's one step farther than 'I didn't actually see it.'"

Chattanooga police also continue to investigate a double homicide that occurred Friday at 3400 Vinewood Drive in East Chattanooga. Police found Aric Moses and Jackie Wilson dead inside a sport utility vehicle after a resident of the Battery Heights Apartment Complex called police to report shots being fired.

They died from gunshot wounds, police said. Both are originally from Chattanooga but live in Atlanta, police said.

Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact police, though they do have a couple of leads in the case.

The weekend's homicides bring the 2009 total to 19, the last on Nov. 5, when Antonio Green, 28, was shot near a playground.