At a corner a few doors down from the site of DeKalb County's most notorious assassination, dozens of people gathered Sunday afternoon on the street that henceforth will be called Derwin Brown Drive.

Brown was sheriff-elect on Dec. 15, 2000, when he was gunned down in front of his home on Glasgow Drive. On Sunday, friends and relatives held a ceremonial unveiling of a new street sign.

AJC file (ENLARGE)

DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown was gunned down in front of his home on Glasgow Drive, which has been renamed Derwin Brown Drive.

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County officials agreed to rename Glasgow in response to a petition drive by residents led by Keisha Peake.

Peake, who attended elementary school with Brown's sons, said family members wanted the public to know that "they are OK." Some of his relatives attended Sunday's event, which also honored Brown's late wife, Phyllis Brown.

The man Brown had defeated in the sheriff's election in August 2000, incumbent Sidney Dorsey, was convicted of ordering the killing and is serving a life sentence. Dorsey later confessed that he told a deputy to have Brown killed, although he claimed he tried to call off the plan.

Also serving life sentences are former Deputy Melvin Walker, the alleged triggerman, and David Ramsey, who had worked at Dorsey's private security company.

Phyllis Brown suffered a stroke in 2003 and never fully recovered. She died on Dec. 24, 2006.