In February 2005, after he disappeared 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 overwhelming responses from bloggers, activists and outraged community members alike who complained that his horrific murder received such limited coverage because he was a black gay working-class male.
America's Most Wanted profiled the case three times: September 29,2005, April 01,2006and December 09, 2006.
Rashawn's family reports 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 J Line. Witnesses believe the two exited at the Nostrand Avenue A Line in Bedford Stuyvesant a short time later.
In 2005, The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Scholarship was created to encourage New York City high school students to reflect upon Brazell’s legacy of selfless service and to think critically about the impact of intolerance and violence on their communities.
Shortly thereafter, The Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund was established to undertake the broader work of strengthening ties between communities formed around sexual identity and those formed around racial identity as a means of promoting tolerance and diversity.
Remebering Rashawn Brazell 3 yrs later