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Fact #148495

When:

Short story:

Shotgun-toting PCP-addled Soul Brother No1, James Brown, is arrested in Augusta, Georgia, USA, after an interstate car chase.

Full article:

EYEWITNESS - Q MAGAZINE - MARCH 1997

Researched, compiled and written by Johnny Black

1988 SEPT 24 : HIGH ON PCP, SHOTGUN-WIELDING JAMES BROWN GETS ARRESTED IN AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, AFTER AN INTER-STATE CAR CHASE

Gilbert Lopez (police deputy attached to Columbia County Sheriff’s Office): I was in the building next door to Mr. Brown’s offices. I was off-duty and they were holding a seminar about the insurance business there. I’d gone along out of curiosity, to see what I might learn.

I was looking out of the classroom window at one point and i noticed a black gentleman wearing a cowboy hat. He was carrying a shotgun and coming towards the building. I was familiar with James Brown from his music and from the television. When I looked closely, I realised it was him.

First of all, he went into his own office, then he came out and entered our classroom. He walked right up to the front of the class where the instructor was standing, and she kind of welcomed him, because she had no idea why he would come in like that. Then he started asking questions about what we were doing there and what we were learning. I heard him say, 'You ain’t learnin' nothing.'

His speech was slurred and I could tell he was not in his right mind. At one point, he took off his hat and threw it in the corner and made some comment like, "There’s rats in my hat", as if he was hallucinating. He started questioning the instructor.

Geraldine Phillips (insurance seminar leader) : He wanted to know who had been using his private rest room. I thought that if I answered one of those questions wrong, he was going to kill me and everyone else.

Gilbert Lopez : He seemed very upset about us using his rest room. Everybody started looking at me, because they knew I was a cop. My vehicle was outside with my gun in it so, while he was talking to the instructor, I slowly edged my way out of my seat and crept out of the back door.

I got my gun and returned to the classroom, but by the time I got there, he’d gone, taking two ladies with him. So, I’m thinking, 'This is kidnapping, taking people against their will.' It turned out he’d taken them with him to lock the toilet doors.

I went after him but by the time I’d caught up to him, he was in his truck. I was quite happy with this because it meant he was going away.

Lt. Larry Overstreet (attached to Richmond County Sheriff’s Office) : We got a call to attend a disturbance at an office complex on Steven’s Creek Road. As I approached the building, James Brown passed me in his pick-up truck. I recognised him, so I set off after him. He knew I was pursuing him and he pulled over about a mile along the road. I could see he was watching me real carefully and, as I got out of my vehicle, he sped off again.

He took a right turn into a very busy main street, Washington Road. Halfway down it, he did a U-turn against the traffic, which was a very dangerous thing to do. I kept after him until he got up onto the interstate and headed across the Savannah River Bridge for South Carolina. The offence we were pursuing him for was just a misdemeanour so we couldn’t follow him across the state line. I called in to my dispatcher and told them to alert the North Georgia department so they could pursue him.

Corporal David Danner (Aiken County Sheriff’s Office) : I intercepted Mr. Brown on the North Georgia side at Martintown Road. As I was a county rather than a city officer, I had county-wide jurisdiction, so I was then able to follow the chase on into South Carolina.

I pulled alongside Mr. Brown’s vehicle and, using my PA system, yelled at him that he had to stop. He immediately pulled over at a vacant lot on the intersection of Atomic Road and Highway 25.

I got out of my vehicle, approached his pick-up and advised him that he needed to surrender. I tried to keep his attention with conversation while I slipped my hand inside his window, intending to turn off his engine and remove the keys.

The next thing really blew my mind. The vehicles from the North Augusta Police Department surrounded us and it was like they went berserk. One of the officers got out, went to the passenger side of Mr. Brown’s truck and commenced to shatter the window with his Mag-Lite. I thought, 'My God, what are they doing?' The man is stopped. If they’d just spoken to me, I’d have told them it was all over.

Then, out of the clear blue sky, with no aggravation from Mr. Brown, the officers started yelling and shooting. I was terrified, not only for Mr. Brown but for myself, because those bullets don’t know me from the next man and I was right in the line of fire.

That’s when Mr. Brown put his vehicle into drive. If I’d been him I’d probably have done the same thing. Where he moved forward, they shot out his tyres, but he didn’t stop. They accused him of trying to drive over them, and that may be true, but he was just trying to save his own life.

I got back into my car and went after him again, largely because I was fearful of what might happen to him if I didn’t. I got in front of his vehicle and tried to bring him to a rolling stop, but he kept driving for six miles on his wheel rims. I realised later that he was simply trying to get back to an area where he could safely give himself up. He finally pulled over near San Barferry Road, where he has an uncle, an ex-police officer. I got out and approached him along with an Augusta officer.

Lt. Overstreet : When he got back into Georgia, he was driving on three shot-out tyres. I arrived at the scene when they’d stopped him and put him in one of our patrols cars. He was disorientated. He didn’t seem to know what was going on.


Cpl Danner : I explained to the officer that Mr. Brown was willing to surrender. He wasn’t violent at all at this point. Everything I asked him to do, he did. He did resist the handcuffing a little and, when he was placed in the back of my vehicle, he kicked out one of my windows, because he was clearly upset. I talked to him and calmed him down as we drove to the police station.

Sgt. Frank Tiller (Richmond County Sheriff’s Office) : As the investigating detective, I was one step behind him all day. I’d get to where he was last seen and he’d be gone. I finally caught up with him when they brought him into the jail. His whole body was soaking wet. I’d never seen anything like it before. He looked like he’d jumped in a pool, but it was all sweat. It seemed obvious to me that he was on something and it wasn’t alcohol. I tried to question him but he was completely incoherent. Then he jumped up and attacked me which was a surprise because I’d run into Mr. Brown around town on a number of occasions and usually he was a real nice fellow.

This time, though, he was quite unpredictable. I had to wrestle him back down to the bench and try to calm him. He started singing Georgia and was doing his 'Good Foot' dance when we gave him a sobriety test.

Lt. Overstreet : We tested him for alcohol and it was zero, but we couldn’t do a blood test because we only had him on a felony charge - failure to stop. In North Georgia, though, the rules are different. Over there, that was enough to let them do a blood test. So we arranged for an immediate extradition, and that’s when we found out he had PCP in his system.

Cpl. Danner : Whern Mr. Brown’s pick-up truck was examined later, it was discovered to have about twenty bullet holes in it, but many more bullets than that were fired and missed. It’s amazing when you realise that the only actual offences he had committed were traffic violations and yet he got a six-year sentence. It was more than anybody has ever gotten for what he did.

(Thanks : Albert Dallas, Bill Weeks, Lawrence brown, James Whittle, Rhonda Holloman, Dennis Sodomka, Stanley Booth and Bob Kilburn.)

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JAMES BROWN BUSTED by Johnny Black


Columbia County Deputy Gilbert Lopez was attending an insurance seminar producer in Augusta, Georgia, on the afternoon of 24 September 1988. Looking idly out of the lecture room window, he spotted a black man wearing a cowboy hat heading towards the building.

“When I looked closely, I realised the man was James Brown,” says Lopez. This wasn’t too much of a surprise, as Augusta had long been home to the Godfather Of Soul. Being a trained observer, however, Deputy Lopez also noted with some concern that Brown was carrying a shotgun. Moments later, the veritable Hardest Workin’ Man In Showbusiness arrived in the room and strode to the front, where he confronted the lecturer, demanding to know who had been using his private rest room.

Somewhat intimidated by the shotgun, lecturer Geraldine Phillips was convinced he might shoot her if she responded incorrectly. From Brown’s erratic behaviour, such as throwing his cowboy hat into a corner and declaring it to be full of rats, Deputy Lopez concluded that the soul star was hallucinating.

Lopez sneaked out of the room to get his own gun from his patrol car but, when he returned, Brown had departed in a pickup truck. He was soon being pursued by Lieutenant Larry Overstreet of Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, who watched in amazement as Brown executed a dangerous U-turn in a main street.

Another officer, Corporal Donald Danner, pulled up alongside Brown’s pickup and, through a PA system, instructed him to stop. The incident seemed over when Brown pulled up into a vacant lot but, to Danner’s horror, more police cars arrived on the scene and “with no aggravation from Mr Brown, the officers started yelling and shooting.”

Understandably, the frightened and confused James Brown accelerated away under a hail of gunfire. Even though the pursuing officers shot out his tyres, Brown continued driving for six miles on the wheel rims before he pulled up again. Lieutenant Overstreet approached him cautiously and remembers “He was disorientated. He didn’t seem to know what was going on.”

By the time Brown was hauled in to the local police station, according to Sgt Frank Tiller, “His whole body was soaking wet. I’d never seen anything like it before. He looked like he’d jumped in a pool, but it was all sweat. It seemed obvious to me that he was on something and it wasn’t alcohol.” Tiller found Brown unable to answer questions, and then, “He jumped up and attacked me, which came as a surprise because I’d run into him around town before and usually he was a real nice fellow.” While the officers tried to administer a sobriety test, “He started singing Georgia and was doing his ‘Good Foot’ dance.”

Brown was found to have significant traces of the drug PCP in his system, which explained much of his bizarre behaviour but, as Corporal Danner subsequently pointed out, “His truck had about twenty bullet holes in it. It’s amazing when you realise that the only actual offences he had committed were traffic violations and yet he got a six year sentence. It was more than anybody has ever gotten for what he did.”