Jamar Brown.JPG

Jamar Brown, 22, has been accused of killing his mother, Sarah Brantley,, 60, in her Syracuse apartment on Aug. 16, 2016.

(Syracuse Police Department)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Tuesday was shaping up to be largely uneventful for the employees of a Dollar General store on Syracuse's North Side.

Just after 12:30 p.m., the workers noticed a shirtless, sweating man acting a bit oddly in the parking lot of their Butternut Street store.

The man, who workers said was carrying what looked like a black purse, walked up to the building and dropped something on the ground about 10 feet from the door, the workers said.

Curious, two workers went out see what the man dropped. It turned out to be a hammer, with the head and shaft covered in what looked like a layer of blood.

This is a photo of a bloody hammer that a man dropped near the entrance to a Dollar Store on Butternut Street in Syracuse on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. Workers at the store said police told them the man was later identified as Jamar Brown, 22, who was charged with killing his mother.

"I was on the phone with the [9-1-1-] dispatch, and I said, 'I don't know what's going on, I'm just putting two and two together, I think he robbed somebody's purse and hurt them,'" said Ashley Henderson, a manager at the store. "It's pretty crazy."

The man walked back off down the street toward a Burger King restaurant. The Dollar General workers said they overheard him singing to himself as he walked away.

The employees said one of the Dollar General workers went with police to help identify the 22-year-old man seen in the parking lot.

Jamar Brown, 22, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Police say he killed his mother, Sarah Brantley, 60, at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in her apartment at McCarthy Manor, 501 S. Crouse Ave., Syracuse.

Brantley died from "massive traumatic injury" after being hit in the head several times with a blunt object, according to court documents. Police did not identify the weapon used in the attack.

The police were called to the apartment complex at 12:36 p.m. to check on a person. They found Brantley dead in her fifth-floor apartment.

Surveillance video at the Dollar General put the man later identified as Brown at the store a couple minutes before police were called to McCarthy Manor. It is about a 30 minute walk from the complex to the store at 606 Butternut St.

This photo of surveillance footage from a Dollar Store shows a man in the store parking lot Tuesday Aug. 16, 2016 who dropped a bloody hammer by the store on Butternut Street in Syracuse. Workers said police later told them the man was later identified as Jamar Brown, 22, who was charged with killing his mother.

At a news conference Tuesday, Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler said Brown was found unarmed within an hour on East Genesee Street near Walnut Avenue, about three blocks from the apartment complex.

Fowler said police believed they recovered the murder weapon, but he would not disclose what the weapon was nor did he say where the weapon was recovered.

At the Dollar General Wednesday, employees were still a bit shocked about the man in their parking lot being accused of murdering his mother. They said they have a meeting with police this afternoon to complete an official statement of what they saw Tuesday.

Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Richard Helterline said police were not releasing any additional information and declined to comment further on the workers' statements.