Florida Man Flees Seatbelt Stop on Foot, Cop Runs Him Over and Kills Him

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Mike Riggs
reason.com
May. 8, 2013

Shortly after 12:30 a.m. this morning a Volusia County Sheriffs deputy saw Marlon Brown driving without a seatbelt, and attempted to pull him over. When Brown kept driving, the deputy gave up pursuit while reporting a fleeing vehicle. Almost immediately, reports the Daytona Beach News-Journal, officers with the DeLand Police Department (the county and city share a dispatch system) said they’d spotted the vehicle and began their own pursuit. What happened next absolutely should not have:

Two DeLand police officers got behind the car as it headed west on Beresford Avenue. Brown did not stop and made a left turn on South Delaware Avenue, a dead-end street that ends near an empty lot. Brown stopped the car and ran from it, as one DeLand patrol car stopped behind Brown’s Toyota Camry. The other patrol car, driven by Officer Harris, drove past on the left of the other stopped patrol car and struck Brown, who was running, with the right front, Montes said.

Harris then ran over Brown, killing him on the spot, Montes said.

At the scene behind some apartment buildings at 901 S. Delaware Ave., tire tracks lead from the paved road into the empty lot for more than a hundred yards, running over bean plants and knocking down a chain link fence. This is where witness Sabrina Waldron said the car stopped on top of Brown.

Waldron said Brown’s car pulled along the woods and stopped.

“There was no need to run him down,” Waldron said. “After the car hit Marlon and landed on him the back end of it was up in the air.”

The Deland Police Department is refusing to comment on the case until the Florida Highway Patrol concludes its investigation. The only information it’s released at this point is that the officer who killed Brown, 25-year-old James Harris, has been on the job since August, has an otherwise clean record, and is now suspended. As for Brown: One explanation for his decision to not pull over may be that his license was suspended and he was on probation. But really: Chasing people over seatbelt violations? Isn’t that a bit much?

This incident–like the one Brian Doherty noted in which a NYPD patrol car pursuing a dirt bike slammed into it and killed one of the passengers–didn’t need to happen. But it seems DeLand police simply aren’t very good at chasing pedestrian suspects.

14 COMMENTS

  1. “25-year-old James Harris, has been on the job since August, has an otherwise clean record, and is now suspended.”

    They left out the words “with pay.” And why has his supervisor not been suspended as well? 8 months on the job, likely fresh out of cop school or just back from serving in the Army, and he’s on his own chasing down fugitives? He shouldn’t be doing anything more than handing out parking tickets and subpoenas.

    The real problem is that now the family will sue and get a big cash settlement. That’s all well and good, but we all end up paying (or at least the good people of Deland, FL will). Even if the police department has insurance to cover this, it means higher premiums for everyone.

    • EricG, I feel ill this morn. I’m blaming it on cops and govt., not kidding. This stuff works on me, keeps me up, messes with my blood sugar. Now where was Crusoe stranded again?

      • You needn’t worry Eightman, some rich decimal point one percenter already owns said island and you would be a prisoner there.
        Dearest Eric, why don’t you start a ” few minutes till complete cloverism clock” similar to the Doomsday clock scenario. In other words”Captain, wake up and smell the coffee, shes a burning”.
        Will there ever be honesty? Perhaps “zee time for being reasonable has passed” the great egg of the”Union” is tottering on the brink , the Kingsmen are already licking their chops when the last bits are gathered and placed in the skillet of greed, as Gordon Lightfoot said in “Don Quixote” “I have seen the strong survive and I have seen the lean grow weak”.
        Does anyone have a problem with the Rothschild’s family supposed fortune of 2 Trillion dollars in assets, now can you tell me who really calls the shots? It seems the “heros” can kill with impunity now and believe it or not some areas seem to be clamoring for more law enforcement, I grow weary of this BS and Pablum “Joe and Jane Average” is being fed. No Hero or Moses am I, when hackles rise and I growl at the unseen, a small voice of reason says “stay out of dark places” don’t question how the Trade centers fell, don’t wonder why pioneers in energy independence quickly die, Do you ever get the feeling that some cold, calculating intelligence is perusing you? The thing at the edge of the clearing, the lurker outside the campfire is there and when it shows its face , its too late . The measure of a man is fast becoming passe’, perhaps it is already too late.

  2. A couple of my high school friends were sons of cops. I remember hearing one of their fathers talking about a chase. He said something along the lines of, “No need to run after him. He can’t outrun Motorola.”

    That was a way of saying that a cop could radio ahead to someone else, or radio the tag number, and the person he was going to pull over would still get pulled over. Chases were less common then, even though there were plenty of hot rodders willing to try to outrun a ticket.

    The new breed of Porky wants action, and will kill to get it. They will kill over a minor offense, but will try to avoid contact with violent criminals.

      • Yep, this story makes me sick, a man run down and killed by a cop in front of witnesses and he hasn’t been arrested. His fellow cops should have tackled his ass, beat him into submission, tazed his ass and dragged him off to jail……

        Oh, shit. I must be dreaming.

        • Ed, tell me what you did to have such a fantasy. I’d like to try, might even be the thing to help cure my insomnia at least one night. If you can’t say, I totally understand.

        • “Eight, I must have been huffing glue.” Oh, think I got more than my fair share of that building models all my life. YOu could find me sitting there in that little room by myself building hell out of models and singing. Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy…..

          • I think I have low blood pressure – because if I squat down for awhile (as when doing a brake job) then stand up suddenly, sometimes, I’ll come close to blacking out. It feels kind of good, actually….

          • @Eric:

            It’s that dangerous primal diet you’re eating.

            I advise you to immediately return to the SAD (Standard American Diet) and wolf down wheat, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and as much processed crap as you can buy.

            You’ll soon return to Standard American Blood Pressure and require Big Pharma’s “help”.

            See what happens when you think for yourself? It just causes trouble.

        • “then stand up suddenly, sometimes, I’ll come close to blacking out. It feels kind of good, actually….”

          eric, the proper medical term for that ailment of yours is “the swimmin’ in the head”. When you get the swimmin’ in the head, you have to use some old time home remedies.

          Ask the old timers around Roanoke what to do for the swimmin’ in the head. The old folks will hook you up.

          Our former emperor, W the Jug Eared used to get the swimmin’ in the head, and fall down choking on pretzels and such. Don’t let it get that far with you.

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