SUWANEE, Ga. (AP) — A gunman who lured firefighters to his home with an emergency call, then held four of them hostage for hours, planned the kidnapping for weeks, targeting them so he wouldn't be shot, authorities said Thursday.
Lauren Brown, 55, was heavily armed with a half-dozen guns in his house, police said. The financially strapped man whose power, cable and other utilities had been cut off because of non-payment demanded they be restored but made no attempt to negotiate as he held hostages in his suburban Atlanta home Wednesday.
Brown called 911 and said he was suffering from chest pains, and five Gwinnett County firefighters arrived at 3:48, believing it was a routine call, said Police Chief Charles Walters. Brown was lying in bed and appeared to be suffering from a condition that left him unable to move. But when they approached the bed to help him, he pulled out a handgun, Walters said.
He let one go to move the vehicles from the front of his house but kept the other four.
That began a 3½ -hour standoff. At about 7:30, police were convinced that even if they met Brown's demands, he had no intention of releasing his hostages, Walters said.
Brown had requested items from a fast food seafood restaurant for himself and his hostages, and a SWAT officer carrying the food approached the house in Suwannee, about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Other SWAT members set off a stun blast to distract Brown and stormed the house. Brown opened fire on the first officer as he entered the bedroom. The man was hit in the left arm by one of the shots, but managed to return fire, killing Brown. Before Brown fired, police told him to drop his weapon, Walters said.
Exposed wooden beams could be seen through a gaping hole in the side of the house Thursday and debris littered the yard. Public records indicate the red brick house with white siding is in foreclosure and has been bank-owned since mid-November.
Brown suffered a series of personal setbacks over the years. He had separated from his wife by the time he filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002, according to federal court records. Then a consultant for IBM, Brown reported owing more than $100,000 to the Home Depot, banks and credit card companies. The records suggest that he was taping into his retirement savings to make ends meet.
His financial situation remained rocky. Records show state and federal tax collectors filed a series of liens on Brown's home in the years since.
Next to Brown's home, another brick house with tan siding next door appeared to have even more damage. A large area of the side was missing, again with wooden beams and insulation exposed.
Jasmin Gutierez, 12, was at home with her family in that house Wednesday afternoon. They huddled in the master bedroom at the other end of the house.
"We started, like, at least trying to get in a group hug to save ourselves because we got scared," she said. "I mean there was a lot of people, like the SWAT teams and the police."
After a while, they heard a loud bang and then they heard shooting and black smoke started to fill their home and police knocked on the door to make sure they were all right.
After the hostage-taking was reported, dozens of police and rescue vehicles surrounded the home and a negotiator was keeping in touch with the gunman, police said. The situation remained tense until the blast rocked the neighborhood of mostly two-story homes and well-kept lawns. Residents unable to get into their neighborhood because of the police cordon flinched and recoiled when the enormous blast went off.
"The explosion you heard was used to distract the suspect, to get into the house and take care of business," Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter said in a news conference minutes after the ordeal ended. He said the situation had gotten to the point where authorities believed the lives of the hostages were in "immediate danger."
"It's an unfortunate circumstance we did not want to end this way," Ritter said. "But with the decisions this guy was making, this was his demise."
Firefighters were able to use their radios to let the dispatch center know what was going on and that's how negotiators communicated with Brown initially, Walters said. Once they got his cellphone service turned back on, they were able to speak to him by phone.
Fire officials did not believe there was any danger in responding to the initial call that seemed routine and dispatched the usual one engine and one ambulance to the house.
This was the second time in recent months that firefighters have been targeted.
On Dec. 24, a man in upstate New York set his house ablaze and shot and killed two firefighters as they arrived, then himself. Two other firefighters and a police officer were wounded.
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Associated Press writers Ray Henry, Johnny Clark and Phillip Lucas contributed to this report.
