Patrolman James Thomas Brown

James Thomas Brown

Patrolman James Brown was shot and killed while attempting to stop the subject who had just murdered Patrolman Wister Reese near Rockingham, North Carolina.

Patrolman Brown was patrolling Route 1 when he spotted the suspect's vehicle about seven miles north of Sanford. He attempted to stop the vehicle but the driver fled leading him on a pursuit. Patrolman Brown notified dispatchers that the vehicle stopped but then moments later radioed again that he had been shot. 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 one 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 19th, 1958. The suspect, who was North Carolina's oldest and longest-serving inmate, died in prison July 21st, 2012. He was 90 years old.

Patrolman Brown was a U.S. Army veteran of WWII and served with the North Carolina Highway Patrol for seven years.

In 2005 the North Carolina Department of Transportation named a bridge on US Highway 1 in Lee County in memory of Patrolman Brown.