James Stewart Brown III
Prince Frederick, MD – On Saturday, Feb. 6 Calvert County Sheriff’s Office units responded to Whirlaway Drive and Gate Dancer Court, Prince Frederick for the report of a white Dodge Charger that was abandoned. Once on the scene it was determined the vehicle was occupied. The sole occupant of the vehicle jumped out and stood behind the vehicle’s door with a knife in his hand. The occupant told Dfc. Wood that he had a knife and that he was just going to have to shoot him. Wood was at a safe distance and was able to call for additional units to respond to the scene.
As additional units arrived the man jumped in his vehicle and locked the door while still armed with a knife. Deputies boxed the vehicle in and approached it to attempt to break out a window in order to gain access to the suspect. The suspect placed the vehicle in drive, drove over a curb and a pursuit ensued.
It was a nice Saturday afternoon and deputies had observed citizens in the neighborhood out walking while responding to the call. The deputies knew they had to get the vehicle stopped before it got near where the citizens had been walking. Corporal Tom Phelps initiated a precision immobilization technique (PIT) on the vehicle to stop the pursuit and Dep. Mohler assisted by boxing the vehicle in.
Deputies again approached the vehicle and broke out the windows to extract the armed subject from the car. The suspect was yelling for deputies to shoot him while he held the knife to his neck. Deputies on the scene told the suspect numerous times to drop the knife. The suspect refused and began cutting his neck with the knife. Two deputies had to deploy their assigned tasers to get the suspect to stop cutting himself with the knife and to comply with commands so he could be taken into custody. The suspect was eventually securely detained without injury to any deputies.
The man was identified as James Stewart Brown III, 34 of Chesapeake Beach. It was determined Brown had an open felony warrant for multiple sex offense charges. According to witnesses the vehicle Brown was operating had been in the area for a couple of days. Brown had to be transported to Calvert Memorial Hospital to be treated for self-inflicted superficial injuries prior to being transported to the Calvert County Detention Center.
Brown was charged criminally with failure to obey a lawful order and disturbing the public peace. In addition he was charged with multiple traffic violations that occurred during the brief pursuit.
Two units were damaged during the PIT and box-in maneuvers which were used to safely terminate the pursuit. The damage sustained to both vehicles was cosmetic allowing both vehicles to be driven from the scene.