Around 4 a.m. Saturday morning, Sheriff-elect for DeKalb County, Georgia (America), Derwin Brown was shot dead in the driveway of his home, on his return from "sheriff's training" in southern Georgia. He was shot 8 times.

Brown had won the recent election for this _constitutional_ position, 2:1 over his incumbent opponent Sheriff Vernon Dorsey.

The campaigning had included charges of corruption against Dorsey. In the past few months Dorsey had promoted 30 officers. Brown had already made it known that his first official acts as Sheriff would include reversing those promotions and "cleaning house".

Why would we care? Well, maybe there's nothing below the surface here to concern us.

But, DeKalb County is adjacent to Fulton County, where the incorporated City of Atlanta resides. Atlanta at times has one of the, perhaps _the_, busiest international airports in the world. DeKalb County, on the other hand, has the rather small Charlie Brown Airport - no relation to the cartoon character. :) Until a decade ago, we'd never heard of an airport in the obscure town of Mena, Arkansas, but we realize today that small airports can be the location of some interesting goings-on.

My speculation would be as follows: Derwin Brown had been an active member of the Sheriff's Dept. for quite a few years. I think it's possible he knew "where the bodies are buried" on some unknown shenanigans that may have occurred during Sheriff Dorsey's time in office - and some folks could not afford the possibility that Sheriff Brown might be revealing and/or taking action on whatever he knew.

He is survived by his wife and 5 children. Since this is a constitutional position, Gov. Roy Barnes will appoint an interim sheriff to fill the position, till another election can be held.