Brother of Browns Player Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah Found Dead, Police Investigating Possible Homicide

"If it wasn't for those two I would probably be playing basketball," Jeremiah said about his brothers being responsible for his career playing football in an interview with NBC Sports.

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Published on April 7, 2022 01:50 PM

Joshua Owusu-Koramoah, the 23-year-old brother of Cleveland Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, was found dead Tuesday in a burned residence in Hampton, Virginia.

In a press release from the Hampton Police Department, authorities say a victim was located on Tuesday at around 9:57 a.m. "deceased inside of the residence." Police shared that there was also "evidence of a fire inside of the home."

In an update issued Wednesday, police identified Joshua — who played football just like his brother — as the victim and shared that the incident is being investigated as a homicide.

A spokesperson for the Hampton Police Department has not yet responded to PEOPLE's request to comment further.

In an April 6 interview with The Virginian-Pilot, Drew Barker, junior varsity football head coach at Kecoughtan High School and former football teammate of Joshua, said he was scheduled to meet Joshua at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Hampton.

After waiting for 25 minutes, Barker grew concerned and phoned Joshua.

"It was automatically heartbreaking when he wasn't answering phone calls, because he was the most punctual, respectful, humble and reliable person I know," said Barker to The Virginian-Pilot.

Barker said he then drove to Joshua's townhouse, arriving at about 9:55 a.m. He told The Virginian-Pilot that he was one of the first people on the scene after emergency responders.

It is not immediately clear if police were already at Joshua's townhouse when Barker arrived.

"It was touch-and-go for a while because they weren't sure if it was him right off the bat," Barker told the local newspaper. "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."

Per NBC Sports, Joshua played linebacker for three seasons at William & Mary.

His younger brother, now a player for the Browns, recently shared that Joshua and another brother, Jerry Brooks, were responsible for his athletic career.

"If it wasn't for those two I would probably be playing basketball," Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah said to NBC Sports in January. "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."