ENCINO : Slain Man Honored With Courage Award

Christopher Brown “would have been proud” to receive the Courageous Citizen award bestowed posthumously for attempting to stop thieves from stealing beer from an Encino convenience store, his father said Monday.

The act cost the 24-year-old his life, but Dennis Brown, the father, said his son would not have regretted his act of courage.

“I don’t think Chris would’ve changed a thing,” the father said.

“This (award) does have meaning--he didn’t give up his life for just anything.”

Brown was eating a hot dog at the convenience store when he and two friends watched three shoplifters run from the store with several 12-packs of beer. The trio gave chase, and when Brown cornered a 14-year-old boy in the the back yard of a nearby house, the youth shot him in the chest with a handgun.

“Christopher Brown is exactly who this award is meant for,” said Shellie Samuels, the deputy district attorney who nominated Brown for the honor, given by the Los Angeles district attorney’s office. “It’s for people who are willing to set aside their own safety for others.”

Brown said since their son’s death, he and his wife, Donna, have joined a victims support group.

“It took me a while to say, ‘My son was murdered,’ ” he said. “But that is what happened.”

The couple is also involved in a victims rights group that lobbies for stiffer penalties for convicted murderers.

Brown’s killer was convicted of the April 12, 1992, murder in juvenile court in August and sentenced to 25 years to life in the California Youth Authority. Despite the long sentence, Samuels said the Van Nuys youth will be eligible for parole in 1999, and must be released on his 25th birthday under California law. Two adults in the case are scheduled to be tried for murder in June.