The brother of Cleveland Browns player Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was found dead in a burned residence in Hampton, Virginia on Tuesday, according to PEOPLE. The Hampton Police Department says a victim was located on Tuesday morning “deceased inside of the residence,” according to a press release. Police also revealed that there was “evidence of a fire inside of the home.”
On Wednesday, police identified the victim as Joshua Owusu-Koramoah. He was 23 years old. Joshua played football just like his brother, and the incident was being investigated as a homicide. “It was automatically heartbreaking when he wasn’t answering phone calls, because he was the most punctual, respectful, humble and reliable person I know,” Drew Barker a coach at Kecoughtan High School and former football teammate of Joshua told The Virginian-Pilot. Barker revealed he drove to Joshua’s townhouse and was one of the first people on the scene after emergency responders.
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“It was touch-and-go for a while because they weren’t sure if it was him right off the bat,” Barker said. “We tried to hold out hope as long as we could … When we found out it was him, it was demoralizing trying to figure out how this happened.” Joshua played linebacker at Willam & Mary, a college located in Williamsburgh, Virginia.
Jeremiah is a year younger than Joshua and played college football at Norte Dame. He was selected by the Browns in the second round of the NFL Draft last year and was made an immediate impact, tallying 76 tackles, 1.5 sacks and four passes defended at the linebacker position. Jeremiah was selected to the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie Team.
In January, Jeremiah talked about how Joshua and another brother, Jerry Brooks, helped him get into playing football. “If it wasn’t for those two I would probably be playing basketball,” Jeremiah said, per Pro Football Talk. “Definitely very influential in terms of the football aspects. Just in terms of the physicality, in terms of the toughness, in terms of persistence even when sometimes I didn’t feel that I should be playing football.” During his time at Notre Dame, Jeremiah won the Butkus Award and ACC Player of the Year in 2020 after posting 80 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks.
