Prayer vigil held for man shot after attempted gas station robbery, family speaks out

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Family members are still grieving and putting together the pieces after the sudden loss of their loved one, Glen Brooks.

On Thursday, a prayer vigil was held for Brooks.

“He was a good person, ask anybody in the world,” says Felicia Sims, a close friend of the Brooks family. “He made a bad choice, but he was a good person.” 

South Bend Police say Brooks attempted to rob the Phillips 66 gas station off West Western Avenue in the early morning hours of December 21st.

They say surveillance video shows Brooks entering the gas station with a handgun, attempting to rob it at gunpoint. 

Then, as Brooks and the clerk got into a physical struggle, a concerned citizen that had watched the situation unfold shot at Brooks. 

Brooks then took off running, collapsed, and died near the gas station. 

He was 24 years old. 

“He was a human being and deserves to be honored,” says a family member of Brooks’ at the prayer vigil.

The Saint Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office determined the shooting to be a justifiable homicide and the citizen who fired the shot that hit Brooks will not face criminal charges.

According to Indiana Code, a reasonable person would have been justified in using deadly force due to a reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily injury. 

Although Brooks’ family says they know he made a mistake that night, it won’t change how they will remember their son, cousin, brother, and nephew. 

“He helped everybody,” says Sarah Walker, the mother of Glen Brooks. “He loved on everybody with a smile on his face.” 

“He was always funny,” says a cousin of Brooks, Angel McCall. “He was a funny guy.” 

His family will remember him that way.

But they also want clarity, and to see that surveillance video that captured Brooks’ last moments alive. 

“It’s sad that he’s gone in that way, he’s gone but never forgotten,” says Sims.

ABC57 tried obtaining the surveillance video from the gas station and has reached out to the South Bend Police Department for the footage.