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Gunman's elaborate hostage scheme backfires

Published:Friday | April 12, 2013 | 12:00 AM
A police officer clears a path for an ambulance after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage on Wednesday, April 10 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. - AP

SUWANEE (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 yesterday.

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 on Wednesday.

THE PLOT

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.

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.