• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Suspect In Weigh Station Incident Talks To CBS4

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +    Comments
Nov 4, 2009 8:24 pm US/Mountain

Suspect In Weigh Station Incident Talks To CBS4

Reporting
Mike Hooker
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4/AP) ― Two state employees are alright after being held hostage by a knife-wielding man at a weigh station on Interstate 25 in Larimer County.

The Colorado State Patrol says the weigh station employees were briefly held at knifepoint Tuesday night by trucker Samuel Ervin Brown. They were rescued without injury, and Brown was taken into custody.

Brown, 49, told CBS4 in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that he was hauling French fries from Georgia to Washington and had been driving 16 hours before the incident. He admits he had been falsifying his logbook and that when he got the red light to pull over at the station he snapped.

"Each time when you get a ticket, it's going to cost you money, and I'm kind of broke anyway," Brown said.

Brown agreed to meet with CBS4's Mike Hooker in jail and he confirmed what police say happened.

Brown said typically he gets asked to show his driver's license, registration and paperwork of what he's hauling at weigh stations. This time, though, the officer checked his log book, which made it clear Brown was driving on very little sleep.

The port officers gave him a citation and told him he would need to park his rig until morning. Brown got so mad he went back to his rig and grabbed his hunting knife with plans harm somebody. Back in the station Brown says he grabbed one of the two workers by the wrist.

"I really caught him by surprise and then once he saw that knife in my hand, that's when he started to really freak out," Brown said.

Within minutes Fort Collins police arrived, but Brown wasn't ready to surrender.

"I kept thinking (about) that ticket I'm going to have to pay in addition to my other bills and stuff. I just didn't want to do that no more."

The man Brown was holding kept talking, though, and Brown let him go. He said the pleas from the officer made him think twice about harming him.

"He told me not to do this, it's not worth it. He's got a family, I've got a family. He wants to go home and see his family."

Brown said he thought about forcing the police to shoot him, but once he saw their guns he decided to give himself up.

Now that Brown has had time to put the incident in perspective, he recognizes he was fully in the wrong.

"I did the crime and now I have to pay the price," Brown said.

Brown is from South Carolina. He's being held in jail in Fort Collins and faces two felony counts of kidnapping.

Brown said it was unusual that he had his knife with him in the truck and that he says he normally carries a gun. He told CBS4 he usually does everything he can to avoid weigh stations in his efforts to bend the rules.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Curious & Controversial News

Add Comment

here. here. Need a log in? Register here
  •  * Will not be displayed with comment
  •  * e.g. (http://www.mywebsite.com)
  •  
  • Click here to refresh with new letters

Show Comments (0)

Close Window Login


Close Window Flag Comment


loading...
You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Colorado & Denver News

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Television Stations Inc. All Rights Reserved.