COOPER CITY, Fla. – Margate Fire Rescue Lt. Lorne Brown, 39, appeared in bond court Friday, a day after he was arrested in connection with a block party shooting that occurred on Super Bowl Sunday.
Brown was ordered held without bond.
The victim, Simeon Brown, 22, said he was driving to his girlfriend’s house in Cooper City on Sunday when the incident occurred.
According to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Robyn Hankerson, the victim was driving through a neighborhood near Southwest 91st Terrace and Southwest 52nd Court when he and a friend who was following his car drove around some traffic cones that were blocking the roadway for the party.
Hankerson said a verbal dispute broke out between some of the neighbors and the people in both vehicles.
A neighbor kicked one of the cars as they were both leaving the area, Hankerson said.
According to Hankerson, Lorne Brown and another neighbor approached the victim’s vehicle with their guns drawn when he returned to the area.
She said the victim and the people in his car were told to get out of the vehicle. Shortly after, Lorne Brown fired into the car, striking Simeon Brown in the arm, Hankerson said.
“They saw the car and, like, ambushed the car,” the victim’s brother, Karone Brown, said.
Hankerson said the victim’s car continued driving through the block party and hit several cars before stopping in a resident’s yard.
Simeon Brown’s brother called 911 and he was taken by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue personnel to a hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.
Lorne Brown’s attorney, Mike Dutko, said in court Friday that the lieutenant was concerned for his safety and that of his neighbors.
“It appears to be a traditional application of stand your ground,” he said. “The fact that there are those out there that are making suggestions that this was somehow racially motivated disturbs him greatly.”
Margate Fire Rescue officials said Lorne Brown has been with the department since Aug. 16, 2004. He has since been suspended with pay.