Bio & Incident Details
Age: Not available
Tour: Not available
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Incident Date: 11/5/1957
Weapon: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect: Sentenced to life
· Leave a Reflection
· Add to My Heroes
· Update this memorial
Share this memorial:
Patrolman Brown was shot and killed after stopping a suspicious vehicle in Lee County. The driver of the vehicle had just shot and killed Patrolman W. L. Reese after being stopped in Richmond County for speeding. The vehicle, later found to be stolen, was being driven by a New York state mental hospital escapee. The escapee was en route to Mississippi to attempt to break his brother out of death row.
Three weeks later the suspect was captured in Bakersfield, California. Since his escape a month earlier, it was discovered that he had been involved in numerous burglaries in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina. He was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and sentenced to two life sentences on March 19, 1958. The suspect, who turned 90 in 2012, has repeatedly been denied parole and remains in prison. He is North Carolina's longest-serving inmate.
In 2005 the North Carolina Department of Transportation named a bridge on US Highway 1 in Lee County in memory of Patrolman Brown.
Related Line of Duty Deaths
|
|
Patrolman Wister Lee Reese |
