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Ephriam Brown
- Jun. 03, 1986 -
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(221)
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Resided: |
Opa-Locka (Miami-Dade County) FL, USA
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Born: | Nov. 20, 1956 |
Fallen: | Jun. 03, 1986 |
Race/Sex: | Black Male / 29 yrs. of age |
| Agency |
Dept: | Opa-locka Police Dept.
Opa-locka, FL
USA |
County: | Dade |
Dept. Type: | Municipal/Police |
Hero's Rank: | Patrolman |
Sworn Date: | 1984 |
FBI Class: | Homicide - Gun |
Weapon Class: | Firearm |
On The Job: |
2 years
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Bio: Ephriam Brown was born on Nov. 30, 1956, in Miami, the only child of Nelson Brown, Sr., and Jacantha Susie Johnson Brown. He grew up in Liberty City with three half-brothers (Nelson, Jr., Louis and Rick) and four half-sisters (Delores, Gloria, Rosetta and Cynthia).
Ephriam attended the Holy Redeemer Catholic Grade School, Curley Jr. H.S. and Edison Sr. H.S., graduating in 1974. He also attended Miami Dade Community College after graduating from H.S.
From childhood and throughout his school years, Ephriam Brown had talked of wanting to be a police officer. He defied his parents who hoped he would find a less dangerous career. His mother, Susie Brown, 57, said, that she "wasn't too pleased about it..but he was grown. He felt like a police officer's job was no more dangerous than walking down the street." Brown first joined the Metro-Dade Police Department, graduating from the police academy on Sept. 3, 1982, at the age of 25. However, he was dismissed from Metro in Feb. of 1983 at the end of the one-year probationary period, in the words of his mother, because he was too soft....but he wanted to try to reason with people. He told me, "Mama, you don't have to bash a man's brains out to arrest him." But later she recalled that she had warned her son about his trusting attitude..."Ephriam, people will take advantage of you. Don't trust anybody on the street....but he felt that he could make peace without breaking the peace." He said, "Mama, a lot of times, it's just the way you approach people. If you treat a man like a man, he'll respect you." (Miami Herald, 6/4/1986) Metro had consistently rated Brown weak in one category, safety techniques. A supervising sergeant wrote that Brown "hesitates in taking control of potentially violent scenes." Another sergeant wrote that Brown "must use caution when confronting suspicious persons, especially relating to being conscious of his firearm and its position." A third supervisor said that "Brown needs to be more careful around suspects/subjects....he continuously leaves himself open and his firearm exposed to a dangerous position." (Ephriam Brown was killed by his own gun which was seized by Derek Thomas in the struggle with Brown.)
One Metro supervisor later said that Ephriam Brown "was a real good kid but just wasn't cut out to be a cop...his shortcomings were not from a lack of effort. He was conscientious. He tried." Or as one neighbor of Brown's put it, "he was too nice to be a police officer...it takes angry people to be policemen."
After losing his job as a Metro-Dade police officer, Brown worked for a year in a landscaping business while applying to the Opa-locka Police Department. The Opa-locka Police Department did not accept the verdict of Metro though the Opa-locka officer who cleared Brown for hiring acknowledged that he "was the type of guy who would let force be his last resort." The Opa-locka department apparently wanted officers who would be less likely to resort to force to patrol its city streets. The department seemed satisfied with Brown's work as he received several commendations. He was commended for capturing four burglary suspects and for his work with a squad with the highest number of arrests (60) in January of 1986.
Also, Brown was encouraged by the acceptance of his style of policing by the black community and apparently decided that Metro-Dade was wrong in its judgment of his qualifications to be an officer. Clearly, people in Opa-locka liked his "style" as he would "try to work things out before he took them to jail". Residents of Brown's Aswan Road patrol area called him "Eddie Murphy" because of his frequent jokes and a passing resemblance to the comedian.
While at Miami-Dade Community College, Ephriam, 18, met Gussie Glenn, a fellow student. Eleven years later at the time of his death he and Gussie, then 28, were engaged to be married. They had taken their blood tests and bought their wedding rings the day before his death and were to be married on June 21. Gussie had already bought her white wedding dress. Former Opa-locka Police Chief Robert Ingram, then South Miami city manager, was to perform the ceremony and more than 250 guests had been invited.
The night of his death Gussie had made dinner for the two of them before he went to work on his midnight shift. Ephriam was supposed to phone her at 6:00AM, her daily wake-up call. Gussie was a credit representative at Jackson Memorial Hospital. But at 6:15AM Opa-locka Police Chief Floyd Reeves, former Chief Robert Ingram, and the police chaplain knocked at her door to break the bad news.
Ephriam Brown usually called his mother each day as she suffered from diabetes and kidney disease. When a group of Opa-locka officials appeared at her door on June 3 she guessed what had happened. Mrs. Brown was dependent financially on Ephriam, her only son, as her husband had died in Nov. after an heart attack. Mrs. Brown worried, "I keep asking myself and asking the Lord, what am I going to do now...he was all I had. I still don't believe it. All I know is my baby's gone." Opa-locka officials set up the Officer Ephriam Brown Trust Fund at the Florida National Bank in Opa-locka to be used either as a reward or to be given to his mother or his fiancee. $1,000 was raised the first day. |
Survived by: |
a son, Kenard Jamille Brown, 5, of Miami; three brothers, Nelson Brown, Jr., 40, Louis Brown, 37, and Rick Brown, 32, all of S. FL; four sisters, Delores Peterson, 43, Gloria Brown, 37, Rosetta Brown, 34, and Cynthia Brown, 31, all of S. FL; an aunt, Mrs. Rufus (Bernice) Wooten, 72, of Deland; and a fiancee, Gussie Glenn, 28.
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Fatal Incident Summary
Offender: |
Derek Thomas
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Location: |
Opa-Locka,
FL
USA
Tue. Jun. 03, 1986
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Summary: |
Opa-locka Police Officer Ephriam Brown, 29, was shot and killed with his own gun by a drug suspect in the parking lot of a convenience store on June 3, 1986. He was the first member of the Opa-locka Police Department to be killed in the line of duty in the 60-year history of the Dept. (the city was incorporated in 1926). The city had only 45 sworn officers in 1986. Officer Brown was the tenth of eleven Dade black officers to be killed since 1946.
Around 2:30AM on Tuesday, June 3, 1986, Officer Brown, a 2-year veteran of the Opa-locka police force, parked his police cruiser in the parking lot in front of a Circle K convenience store at N.W. 135th St. and Sinbad Ave. in Opa-locka. The convenience store "lies at the crossroads" of one of Opa-locka's "worst drug trafficking zones."
Brown planned to go inside to get a cup of coffee but never made it inside the store. Also parked in front of the Circle K was Derek Newton Thomas, 22, who was apparently smoking a marijuana cigarette while sitting in a brown 1974 Mercury Marquis. A second man, Randall Douglas Dowling, was also sitting in the car.
Brown went over to the car to confront Thomas, perhaps because he "recognized him as a suspect in a shooting" two weeks earlier in Opa-locka or simply because Thomas was smoking marijuana. Several people, including store employees and customers, witnessed the confrontation, struggle, and killing of Officer Brown.
Later investigation revealed that Thomas was wanted on two warrants for failing to appear in court and faced a $600 bond if taken into custody. Perhaps knowing this he "panicked" and decided to resist arrest. The two men were of equal size with Officer Brown at 5'9" and 150 lbs. and Thomas at 5'11" and 150 lbs.
Dowling stayed on the scene and cooperated with the police. He picked Thomas' photograph out of a lineup, aiding in the search. Five people witnessed the struggle between Brown and Thomas which lasted from three to five minutes. Brown struggled with the suspect for several minutes in the parking lot, and for a time seemed to have him under control, but not handcuffed. The suspect began struggling again and seized Brown's gun....The officer was hit point blank--probably four or five times.....(Brown) fell chest-down near his police cruiser in the northwest corner of the dusty parking lot of the Circle K store....The suspect split with the officer's gun, leaving him lying in a pool of blood. (Miami Herald, 641991)
Thomas shot Brown five times with .38 Special slugs fired from Brown's .357 Magnum at about 2:34AM. Brown had two wounds in the lower abdomen, two more higher on his body and at least one in the upper chest. Brown was not wearing a bulletproof vest. Someone called the police and an "officer down" call went out. Opa-locka Officer Julio Chardon was the first to arrive on the scene. He found Officer Brown lying on his stomach in a pool of blood near his police cruiser. The wounded officer's service revolver (a .357 Magnum) was missing. Chardon called for fire rescue. Brown was taken to Parkway Regional Medical Center and found to have no vital signs upon admission. Attempts to resuscitate were futile and he was pronounced dead at 3:15AM.
After fire rescue left the scene, Officer Chardon turned to several people who were standing near the pay telephones outside the Circle K. He asked where the officer's gun was and one of the witnesses said, "The guy that shot him has it." Another witness identified Randall Dowling, still on the scene, as having been with the "shooter" in the car when the officer arrived. Dowling was questioned and identified Derek Thomas as the man who shot the officer.
There is some evidence that Officer Brown and Thomas had some contact shortly before the confrontation in the convenience store parking lot. A 23-year-old woman who lived near the Circle K said Brown came up to her as she arrived home about 2:00AM and spoke with her. At that time, about 30 minutes before the shooting, a maroon car drove past several times, then "screeched away." The woman said that Thomas was in the car. Brown then left saying he was going to Circle K to get some coffee. It is possible that Brown approached Thomas in the Circle K parking lot in part because of the earlier "incident."
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Disposition: |
In 1995 Derek Thomas was serving his life term at a FL prison. His first parole interview was not scheduled until Dec. 15, 2009. |
Source: |
Book Excerpted in part or in whole from Dr. Wilbanks book-
FORGOTTEN HEROES: POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN DADE COUNTY, FL, 1895-1995
by William Wilbanks
Louisville: Turner Publications
1996
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Last Updated: May. 29, 2019 |
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