Former Sarasota High football player faces long recovery after shooting

Auburn University running back Brian Battie was awarded the 2025 Wilma Rudolph Award for his resilience.


Former Sarasota High running back Brian Battie played one season at Auburn University before he was shot in the head on May 18.
Former Sarasota High running back Brian Battie played one season at Auburn University before he was shot in the head on May 18.
Image courtesy of Auburn Athletics
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By the time Brian Battie made it to Auburn University, he had learned how to overcome his limitations as a football player. 

Navigating through the limitations life brought him after football has been a much tougher challenge. 

Battie and his brother, Tommie Battie IV, were shot at the Tallywood Centre Plaza in Sarasota on May 18, 2024. Tommie died that night and Brian was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in critical condition

The Battie family has spent the past year trying to recover. 

Brian, who was shot in the head, has been rehabbing daily from a traumatic brain injury that left him unable to walk, talk, open his eyes or even breathe on his own for more than two weeks after the shooting.

“The hardest part is not having my brother with me,” Brian Battie said. “It’s not going to get any better not having my brother with me. That’s the hardest fight.”

Brian was awarded the 2025 Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award by the National Association of Academic and Student Athlete Professionals on May 28. The award is given annually to five collegiate athletes who have overcome adversity to contribute in the classroom, campus or community. 


Living for Tommie

Despite being undersized for a running back at 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, Brian Battie became a standout high school player for Sarasota and Braden River high schools.

He started his collegiate career as a backup running back and kick returner in his first two years at the University of South Florida but had a breakthrough season as a junior when he ran for 1,186 yards and eight touchdowns.

That standout year earned him the chance to transfer to Auburn for the 2023-24 season, where he played as the Tigers’ kickoff returner and as a backup running back.

His traumatic brain injury, however, left him as a shell of his former self.

His parents, Tommie and Adriene Battie, said doctors thought Brian would be permanently paralyzed on the right side of his body. 

Despite that prognosis, it took him just three weeks to begin walking with a cane. 

That was a monumental moment, but months of long days and dark nights remained ahead.

Tommie and Adriene spent the next few months navigating a balancing act of mourning one son while being present for another. 

The Battie family described Tommie Battie IV as "the soul of their family." Some of the things they miss the most are his laugh, how he carried himself, and the music he would sing. 

Brian Battie and Tommie Battie IV played football together for Sarasota High in 2017. The brothers were shot in Sarasota on May 18. Tommie Battie IV was pronounced dead at the scene, while Brian Battie was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
File photo

“His absence is a silence that is very hard to get through,” Adriene Battie said. 

Brian still is impacted by his bother's energy, and he constantly remembers his brother telling him to work harder and to be better. It stays with him every day.

“When I could barely stand on my own and I first stood up straight, I felt his presence as if he was right there next to me saying, ‘Come on bro, come on,’” Brian said. “I felt a strong sense of his presence multiple days when I just felt like giving up and not doing it, I felt his presence touching me.”

The grief of losing their son was inescapable at times for Tommie Battie III and Adriene. 

“There were moments where I couldn’t breathe,” Adriene said. “There were moments where people had to pick me up off the floor. There were days where it felt like the grief was suffocating me to the point where I didn’t know how to go on.”

Tommie Battie III struggled as well, but said he ultimately found strength through knowing that his son wouldn’t want their family to crumble. 

That mindset motivated Tommie and Adriene when they visited Brian each day in the hospital. Other family members, friends and even some of his teammates from Auburn visited as well.

Video games, card games like Uno, and Adam Sandler movies helped the Batties distract themselves from the tragedy at hand in Brian’s hospital room and provided some brief moments of comfort. 

By the fall, Brian had made enough progress in his recovery to return to Auburn to watch his team play in the Iron Bowl against Alabama. 

Brian Battie recovered enough from a gunshot wound to his head to return to Auburn University this past fall to reunite with his teammates.
Image courtesy of Auburn Athletics


The road back

It’s been over a year since Brian laid in a hospital bed hooked up to a ventilator, and the strides he’s made in his recovery have been so significant they’ve been described as ‘unheard of,’ according to Adriene. 

He still walks with a cane and is working on returning his right hand to functionality. 

His most recent sign of progress is graduating from speech therapy. Next up is a grind through days of physical therapy.

Fully healing from the loss of Tommie Battie IV might never happen for the family, but they experience moments of comfort when they think of him. Those moments come when they are out at a store or restaurant and they hear his favorite songs. It has happened so often they feel it can't be a coincidence. 

One day when Adriene was lying by a pool in Lakewood Ranch, she was approached by a woman who asked her to speak with her friend, who is a medium. 

The medium told Adriene that Tommie Battie IV was in her dreams the night before and that he sees Adriene kiss his picture every night. 

Tommie Battie III was skeptical at first, until the medium mentioned that she said Tommie Battie IV told her of a ring inscribed with his finger print and signature that the family wears — something she had no way of knowing.

“What we’ve seen, and those signs, and the strength that Brian has been able to pull out is not just physical,” Adriene said. “That’s the kind of strength that comes from somewhere deeper, somewhere spiritual. We believe that strength is through Tommie. Brian’s healing has been a miracle.”

Slowly but surely, the Batties are working on getting back to living their lives.

Tommie Battie III returned to coaching football with Lakewood Ranch High last fall, and has since returned to his alma mater, Sarasota High, as the team’s offensive coordinator. 

There is still healing to be done for Brian, but he now finds himself in a place with hope for the future. 

His goals include completing the final four courses required to graduate with a Sociology degree at Auburn sometime soon. 

After graduation, he said he wants to one day become a motivational speaker for kids, with the intent of sharing the message that nothing in life can ever be taken for granted.

“I definitely plan on making a full recovery with a fully functioning body and a fully functioning mind,” Brian Battie said. “I think I owe it to my brother and my family to not give up and don’t stop until I’m healed. I just want to be healed.”

Closure is still to come for the Battie family in the legal process. Darryl Bernard Brookins Jr., a five-time convicted felon, was arrested for the murder of Tommie Battie IV and the shooting of Brian Battie on May 22, 2024. Brookins is scheduled to appear at the Sarasota County Courthouse for criminal case management Aug. 20.

 

author

Vinnie Portell

Vinnie Portell is the sports reporter for the East County and Sarasota/Siesta Key Observers. After graduating from USF in 2017, Vinnie worked for The Daily Sun as a sports reporter and Minute Media as an affiliate marketer before joining the Observer. His loyalty and sports fandom have been thoroughly tested by the Lions, Tigers and Pistons.

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