Remembering Police Officer William Brown

 

“I Could Hear The Bullets Whizzing Past My Head”

Lima Police Officer William Brown had driven through the intersection of Robb and Cole thousands of times in his 16 years working for the Lima Police Department. On a cold Saturday night in 1974, something was different. Something was wrong at the Certified Oil Station. Piper Jones, one of the workers at the time, stated, “There is no doubt in my mind that he [Officer Brown] realized something was wrong, and that was why he came into the station.” As he approached the Certified Oil Station Officer Brown could never have realized that his life was about to end in a hail of gunfire.

As Officer Brown approached the station, Jones, one of the two attendants, was lying on the floor after being thrown down by a masked robber. “When he [the robber] came into the store, we thought it was a joke.” Jones said. “When I laughed at him, he [the robber] grabbed me by the hair, threw me to the floor, put a gun to my head and demanded the money.”

When the masked robber saw Officer Brown walking towards the station, he told Jones to get up. He instructed both workers to tell the policeman “everything was okay.” Officer Brown walked through the door and the workers did as the masked robber told them. Years of law enforcement experience told Officer Brown something was wrong. Officer Brown responded by saying, “It doesn’t look that way to me.” He then asked the masked robber to remove his ski mask.

As the robber began removing his gloves and mask, Officer Brown briefly looked out the door, likely surveying the scene. The masked robber then pulled a gun out of his pocket and fired four bullets, at point blank range, into Officer Brown. Jones, who suffers hearing loss to this very day from the incident says, “I could hear the bullets whizzing past my head.” Officer Brown would fall to the floor critically wounded. As he fell, he managed to fire one shot from his weapon that missed the robber by inches. The robber jumped over Officer Brown and ran out the door. He ran to the back of the building where a getaway car was waiting in a laundromat parking lot.

“I’ve Been Hit In A Robbery At Cole And Robb … I Think It’s Bad”

As the clerks chased after the robber, Officer Brown somehow managed the get up off the floor of the gas station and stumbled to his cruiser. In a weak voice, he radioed to his fellow officers, “I’ve been hit in a robbery at Cole and Robb … I think it’s bad.” It was bad. One bullet went through Officer Brown’s chin and into his throat. Two bullets went through his right arm and into his chest. One bullet lodged in his left forearm.

Piper Jones came back after he was unable to chase after the robber. He tried to help Officer Brown by putting shop rags on his wounds to stop the bleeding. Jones then went in to call an ambulance. By the time he returned, two police officers were on the scene trying to save Officer Brown. The first patrolman on the scene stated. “We gave Bill mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and applied heart massage until the ambulance arrived, but it was apparent he was gone when it [the ambulance] got there.”

While Officer Brown was struggling for his last breath, a thug by the name of Ross Caudill was ready to party on a Saturday night.

No Conscience

As Officer Brown lay dying on the floor of the Certified Oil Station, Ross Caudill went to a friend’s house and watched television and played a hockey game. He drank beer and ate pizza. On Monday, Caudill went back to school. He likely noticed the Brown children were all absent. They were mourning the loss of her father.

In the days following the robbery/murder, Caudill worked hard to distribute the $1,300 he stole after he murdered Officer Brown. He distributed all but $200, which he used to buy new hub caps. The same hub caps he told the clerk at the auto parts store he would be back to buy two days before the robbery when he killed Officer Brown. The party would end when Caudill’s own stepfather would see the plea on the news to help find Officer Brown’s killer. He checked his gun collection and realized one gun had been fired and four bullets were missing. He called police, and Ross Caudill was arrested and charged with the murder of Officer William Brown. The evidence was overwhelming, and Caudill pled guilty to the murder of Officer Brown. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Be Good, Stay Out of Trouble

When Lima Police Officer William Brown was murdered, seven children lost their father and a wife lost her devoted husband. The community of Lima lost one of their finest officers. Officer Brown was especially dedicated to the children of Lima. He was well known for his saying, “Be good and stay out of trouble.” Officer Brown’s commitment to children was never more evident than when the parents of a trouble youth called Officer Brown to help them with their son. Officer Brown took the troubled young man under his wing and helped him turn his life around. That young man was so inspired by Officer Brown he eventually became a police officer. One has to wonder how many children’s lives would have been changed for the better in the last 40 years had Ross Caudill not murdered Police Officer William Brown.

In 1974, shortly after Officer Brown was murdered, his daughter Deb Brown went to the jail to ask Caudill why he murdered her father. “When I asked him, he turned his back to me,” Officer Brown’s daughter says today. “He refused to say a word.” Since that time, Caudill has never taken responsibly for his actions. He has blamed everyone for his incarceration, including the court system, the gas station attendants and even the Brown family for opposing his release.