by Anthony Glassman

West Palm Beach, Fla.--A prominent bar owner and LGBT advocate from Ohio was killed in a murder-suicide on March 19 or 20.

Michael Brown, 50, originally from Mansfield, owned H.G. Roosters, a long-standing gay bar in town.

At 5 pm on Friday, March 21, employees at the bar, who had been unable to reach Brown since Wednesday, called police, who went to his apartment.

There, they made a grisly discovery: his erstwhile boyfriend Brant Hines, 27, had apparently stabbed Brown to death late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Then, late Thursday or early Friday, Hines hung himself from a leather strap outside the bedroom door.

Having grown up in Mansfield, Brown moved to Florida 24 years ago after visiting a friend there. His H.G. Roosters club served as a centerpoint of the area�s LGBT community for two decades. Tony Plakas, the former director of the Compass LGBT Center of Palm Beach County, attributed its existence to Brown. He was also a Pride parade grand marshal in 1997.

�He was somebody who connected everybody in Palm Beach County,� Plakas said. �The guy is somebody who everybody would think was family.�

�It wasn�t about a money-making venue,� friend Tim Carey told the Palm Beach Post of Brown�s work at Roosters. �It was about making sure that gay people had a place to go and feel comfortable.�

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Hines and Brown had a shaky history.

�Apparently they had an on-again, off-again relationship,� said Lt. Chuck Reed of the West Palm Beach Police Department. �It was somewhat of a volatile relationship even when it was on.�

�We believe it was the result of a violent domestic disturbance,� he said.

A neighbor heard them quarreling on Wednesday, March 19, and Hines was seen walking Brown�s dogs the next day, sporting a black eye.

Becky Peters, Brown�s sister, said she knew Hines and told her brother he was using him for money and shelter.

Brown replied, �I wouldn�t put a homeless dog out in the street and I certainly wouldn�t do it to a person.�