But Brookins’ frustration with how officers treated her son that day goes beyond the photo. She said the few conversations she’s had with police made her feel like a nuisance, and that detectives did not answer her key questions — like what her son told police before his death, and why no one called her or set out an inflatable device below the overpass in the three hours he spent contemplating jumping.

In the absence of answers, she has spent the last two years hunting down witnesses, surveying nearby businesses, recovering videos taken by bystanders, and filing public records requests, desperate to piece together details about her son’s final moments.

“Those answers are everything to me,” she said.

‘Life was very painful’

Boone was born in Bristol and was raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He had faced mental health troubles from a young age, Brookins said, partly caused by difficulties he faced as a child after his parents separated.

Boone was vibrant, though, she said, often hiding his pain with a brave smile and keeping busy with sports and hobbies like cooking.

“Everything he loved and did, it was with a passion,” Brookins said. Being a father to his now-22-year-old daughter was the highlight of his life, she said.

But Brookins said her son started self-medicating with drugs to ease his mental health issues, which included bipolar disorder, depression, and paranoid schizophrenia. He struggled with addiction, she said, and spent months in jail at various points for crimes related to drugs, retail theft and robbery.

“When Marcus was clean and in his right mind with his love and support … he was unstoppable. He was brilliant, very intelligent,” she said. “But life was very painful.”

Boone was living at the Gaudenzia recovery house in early 2022, Brookins said. She and her son had come up with a plan for the months ahead, and he seemed to be in a good place.

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