The next stop: the Family Dollar just off Loop 12 in southeast Dallas.
Ladarrian Brooks pulled in and started backing his tractor-trailer to the building, preparing to unload his shipment, when he saw a distinct Buick missing its front passenger-side hubcap turn into the parking lot.
Brooks knew it was his younger brother, Corey Cobb-Bey — the old white sedan was his signature. Brooks and Cobb-Bey both made a living driving trucks, so they talked shop when Brooks found him in the store. They chatted for a short time, then parted with a fist bump.
The chance encounter earlier this month was brief but warm. It took on new meaning Saturday as Brooks recalled the memory: It was the last time he would see his brother alive.
Cobb-Bey, 30, carried out what Dallas police Chief Eddie García described as a “premeditated” execution of a Dallas police officer in Oak Cliff and injured two others Thursday evening before fleeing in the Buick. A cross-city pursuit followed and ended in Lewisville, where six Dallas officers fatally shot him after he stepped out of the sedan and raised a shotgun at police.
Brooks said he, members of his family and likely “everyone who knew” his younger brother were in “complete shock” after hearing what Cobb-Bey did. He described the difficult process of grieving for a loved one knowing they’ve done something unthinkable.
“I’m just more hurt for the victims’ families than anything,” Brooks, 39, said in a phone interview Saturday. “Obviously, this is my little brother, but, whatever he was going through that led up to this moment, it involved innocent police officers and other victims. That really hurts me more than anything.”
Police said Cobb-Bey briefly spoke with Officer Darron Burks through the driver’s side window of the officer’s patrol vehicle at an Oak Cliff community center before fatally shooting him with a handgun. Cobb-Bey then shot and injured two officers — Senior Cpl. Jamie Farmer and Senior Cpl. Karissa David — who responded to the scene.
On Friday, a vigil for Burks, a beloved former school teacher of 17 years who pivoted to a career in law enforcement and had just completed his police training, drew hundreds of mourners to the For Oak Cliff community center, near where he was killed.
Cobb-Bey’s father, Emery Cobb, declined to be interviewed Saturday for this article but expressed his condolences for the three officers and their families.
“I’m sorry to the family of the police officer,” Cobb said. He described the Thursday events as “something that is unexplainable” and incongruent with how he had raised his son. He added: “Our heart goes out to them.”
‘This ain’t the way’
In social media posts reviewed by The Dallas Morning News, Cobb-Bey refers to himself as a “Moorish American National” in an apparent reference to the Moorish Science Temple of America, a religious sect that dates from 1913.
Some splinter groups of the Moorish Science Temple adhere to a worldview similar to those in the “sovereign citizen” movement. They believe they are not bound by some or all United States laws, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The ideology informing the sovereign citizen movement dates back to the 1970s and has white supremacist roots, according to the law center. Those beliefs have fueled clashes with law enforcement, including when the Moorish sovereign citizen offshoots emerged in the mid-1990s. The FBI considers sovereign citizens an anti-government extremist movement.
Not all Moors are sovereign citizens, according to the law center. The Moorish Science Temple of America disavows the sovereign citizen movement, according to a list of frequently asked questions published on the organization’s website.
“With us all members must proclaim their nationality and we are teaching our people their nationality and their Divine Creed that they may know that they are a part and a partial of this said government,” the website reads.
Brooks, who described himself as a Christian man of faith, said he and Cobb-Bey grew up Catholic. Brooks said he respected his younger brother’s decision about eight years ago to convert his religion, so he paid little mind to the shift in beliefs.
Brooks said he remembers when Cobb-Bey added the suffix “Bey” to his name — a change meant to honor Moorish heritage.
Brooks said he had not heard Cobb-Bey ever discuss the sovereign citizen movement. However, court records indicate Cobb-Bey may have subscribed to the ideology.
In April 2017, police pulled him over in southern Dallas after spotting him driving a pickup with an expired registration. He told the officer he didn’t have insurance, didn’t have a driver’s license with him and refused to give his birth date. He handed the officer a card labeled “personal liberty” and bearing the name Coremour Luel Bey.
The officer detained Cobb-Bey, and a check through an FBI database listed his name as Corey Cobb, records show.
Cobb-Bey was charged with failure to identify himself to a peace officer and pleaded not guilty, records show. Leading up to his trial, he filed court documents saying he was a citizen of the Moorish nation. A jury convicted him in 2018 and sentenced him to six days in jail.
E. Carlock Bey, the coordinator of a Dallas-based study group listed on the website for the Moorish Science Temple of America, said he did not know of Cobb-Bey but “almost cried” when he heard what happened Thursday night.
Carlock Bey disavowed offshoots adhering to sovereign citizen ideology — which he acknowledged are present on the “extreme” fringes outside the Moorish Science Temple of America.
“I wish I had got to him and told him what [the Moorish Science Temple of America] was really about,” Carlock Bey, 34, of Cedar Hill, said in a phone interview Saturday. “I could have got to him and told him, ‘This ain’t the way.’”
‘Y’all better leave me alone, man’
Brooks’ phone lit up with a new text message early Tuesday afternoon.
“Happy Bornday!!” Cobb-Bey said in a message to his older brother reviewed by The News. He included emojis with confetti and the emoji of a champagne bottle. “Hope you enjoy another year around the sun.”
“Thanks bro,” Brooks replied.
Later that day, Brooks texted him again, asking what part of town his younger brother was working in. Brooks had spotted a Buick sedan — similar to the one their grandmother used that Cobb-Bey now drove — parked in the Fort Worth area.
That was their last conversation before the shooting. The next day, Brooks said, he became worried about his brother after seeing an ominous Aug. 28 video he posted on social media.
Cobb-Bey recorded the video sitting behind the wheel of the Buick while at a stop light. The camera turned on himself and aiming outside the sedan’s back window, he says a black SUV has been following him.
“You see? They some demons. They right there,” Cobb-Bey says in the video reviewed by The News. Later in the video, he says, “Y’all better leave me alone, man.”
The video concerned Brooks. He had seen Cobb-Bey’s previous musings on social media, but this was different. He wondered whether his younger brother could be a target because he often wears a turban or a fez. Brooks commented on the Facebook post, asking his brother to be safe.
In a separate Aug. 26 video posted the day before the happy birthday text, Cobb-Bey approaches officers in a parked, unmarked SUV and asks them if there’s “any problem.” He asked the officer if there was “any criminal activity” he needed to be aware of, according to the video reviewed by The News.
Brooks said he did not see the Aug. 26 video until after the shooting. If he had, he said he would have “immediately” called his younger brother to advise against what he was doing.
Brooks said he wonders now whether Cobb-Bey was under the influence of drugs in the days leading up to the shooting.
Responding to a list of questions seeking more information, including whether drugs were seized from Cobb-Bey’s home, police spokesperson Senior Cpl. Melinda Gutierrez said Saturday an investigation was ongoing and pointed to a news release posted online. The release does not say whether drugs were found.
Regardless, Brooks said the shooting has deeply troubled him and his family. A complicated grieving process is in store for them, though he said it pales compared with what Burks’ family, and Farmer and David — and their families — face.
Brooks described Cobb-Bey as a hard worker with a “gentle soul” who was a fanatic with music and eating healthy food. He had an affinity for tattoos, including two portraits of his mom and dad, and seemingly “had a new one every time I saw him.” He was a faithful man who was proud of his religion.
But Brooks acknowledges what Cobb-Bey did was wrong — something that can’t be put aside when talking about him. Brooks hopes his lasting memory will be the two chatting in the Family Dollar checkout line.
“We talked and we fist-bumped. And I said, ‘Hey, I love you. Have a good one. I’ll talk to you later.’ ... that’s the memory I will hold deeply for the rest of my life,” Brooks said. He paused, becoming emotional, then continued. “Even … knowing what he caused on Thursday.”
After the shooting, strangers online found Cobb-Bey’s Facebook page and the Aug. 28 video. They also saw Brooks’ sympathetic post asking his younger brother to be safe. They chided him with replies. They started tagging him.
Brooks said he decided to delete his reply Saturday morning.
Staff writers Julia James and Sue Ambrose contributed to this report.
