The 69-year-old social worker was remembered for music, nature and helping others after his killing inside a Mastic apartment.
MASTIC, N.Y. — Edward Wade Brown spent much of his life helping other people see the best in themselves, his family said after his death. Prosecutors now say the 69-year-old social worker died inside his Long Island apartment in an attack allegedly carried out by one of his own sons.
The contrast between Brown’s family remembrance and the criminal case that followed his death has become one of the starkest elements of the Sept. 7 homicide in Mastic. Relatives described him as a devoted father, a spiritual man, a lifelong learner and someone drawn to music, the ocean and the outdoors. In court, prosecutors have described a far different final scene: Brown calling 911 from his studio apartment while suffering fatal stab wounds and identifying his son Sage Arias-Brown during the emergency. Arias-Brown, 33, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Brown was born June 3, 1957, in West Islip, according to an obituary published by his family. He was the eldest child of Edward and Anne Brown and was survived by three sons, Sage, Jonah and Jesse, along with his brother, Matthew, and other relatives. The obituary described him as someone whose work as a social worker reflected his personality outside the job as well. His family said he encouraged people around him and had a gift for helping others recognize their own strengths.
Music and nature also figured prominently in the remembrance. Rather than defining Brown through the circumstances of his death, relatives asked people to think of him while listening to live music, singing a favorite song or walking near the ocean or through the woods. The obituary called him a seeker and philosopher with a gentle, restless spirit. Those details provide a fuller picture of the man whose name otherwise appears in court filings and police reports primarily as the victim in a homicide case.
The police account begins shortly after midnight on Sept. 7. Suffolk County police said Brown called 911 at approximately 12:30 a.m. from his apartment on Mastic Boulevard and reported that he had been stabbed. Police and members of the Mastic Volunteer Ambulance Company responded and attempted to save him, but Brown was pronounced dead at the scene. Prosecutors later said an autopsy found approximately 40 stab wounds. The number is part of the state’s allegation and medical findings, but the circumstances can be reported without dwelling on graphic details.
Prosecutors said the emergency recording captured Brown speaking during the attack and naming Sage. They have quoted him telling the dispatcher that he was being murdered and asking, “What are you doing to me, Sage?” A neighbor supplied another account, telling investigators that a loud bang was followed by Brown screaming and that Arias-Brown was seen leaving the apartment several minutes after the call. Police found Arias-Brown walking roughly half a mile from the scene and arrested him.
The case grew more detailed when Arias-Brown was arraigned on a grand jury indictment Sept. 17. Assistant District Attorney Melissa Grier told the court that Arias-Brown had blood on his clothing, hands and backpack when officers found him and that he had a cut on his hand, according to Newsday. Grier also said investigators recovered a bloodied knife from a garbage can outside Brown’s apartment. She said the knife had been sent for laboratory analysis. Reliable public reports reviewed through Nov. 6 did not disclose a final test result.
Arias-Brown pleaded not guilty before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Richard Horowitz and was ordered held while the case proceeded. District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said the allegations were heartbreaking and emphasized that Brown had been trying to reach police for help. Prosecutors say Arias-Brown faces 25 years to life if convicted. An indictment is not a conviction, however, and Arias-Brown remains presumed innocent unless and until the state proves the charge in court.
His attorney, Katherine Fernandez, also placed information about Arias-Brown before the judge. She said her client had documented mental health concerns, was receiving medication while incarcerated and understood the proceedings. Fernandez said he had no previous criminal convictions. The publicly reviewed reporting does not establish a connection between those mental health concerns and Brown’s death, and it does not show that the defense has formally relied on mental illness as a legal explanation for the alleged homicide.
There is another pending case involving Arias-Brown, but it is legally separate. Suffolk County police said he was arrested in May and charged with third-degree robbery after a man allegedly gave a demand note to a teller at a TD Bank in Lake Ronkonkoma and left with money. Fernandez noted during the murder proceeding that the robbery allegation had not gone to trial. Because it remains a separate unproven charge, it does not establish that Arias-Brown committed the later crime alleged by prosecutors.
Brown’s death also affected a residential community whose members told local reporters that serious violence was unusual there. News 12 interviewed longtime residents who described the neighborhood as generally quiet after investigators worked along Mastic Boulevard. Those reactions offered a community-level view of the case, but Brown’s family provided the more personal account. Their obituary centered not on the police response or the indictment but on his relationships, his work and the interests that had shaped nearly seven decades of life.
The distinction matters in a case likely to generate attention because of the 911 recording and the relationship between the accused and the victim. The emergency call is powerful evidence as described by prosecutors, but it is only one portion of Brown’s story. His family’s account presents him as a father of three and a professional whose identity extended well beyond the violent circumstances of his death. At the same time, the criminal proceeding requires a separate focus: whether prosecutors can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Arias-Brown intentionally caused his father’s death.
Several questions remain unanswered publicly. Authorities have not announced a verified motive. The available reports do not describe a final forensic result from the recovered knife, and no trial has occurred. September coverage said Arias-Brown was due back in court Oct. 21, but searches of reliable indexed sources through Nov. 6 did not establish what happened at that scheduled appearance. The latest independently confirmed status is that he had pleaded not guilty and was being held while the murder case remained pending.
For Brown’s relatives, the criminal process will proceed on its own timetable. Their public remembrance instead asked that he be recalled through ordinary moments associated with the things he valued: music, singing, the ocean, the woods and acts that bring happiness. That account stands alongside, but apart from, the allegations now being litigated in Suffolk County court.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.