Curtis BrownThe 34-year-old man wanted for exchanging gunfire with Chattanooga police on Monday night turned himself in to authorities today with the help of a local pastor.
Although police initially believed no one was injured in the shootout on Glass Street, Curtis Brown appears to have been shot at least once and perhaps twice, Bishop Kevin Adams at Olivet Baptist Church said.
Police confirmed Brown was shot at least once.
Brown initially ran from police outside a store in the 2400 block of Glass Street just after 11 p.m. Monday, but then picked up a gun and fired at two officers, who returned fire.
The officers were not injured. Brown was shot in the foot and seemed to have been grazed in his side, Adams said. The man's family called Adams this morning and asked Adams to broker Brown's surrender.
Brown arrived at Olivet Baptist Church around 12:30 p.m., where Adams gave him a change of clothes and then took him to the Hamilton County Jail downtown, he said.
They were met by officers from multiple law enforcement agencies, who were polite and asked whether Brown needed medical treatment, Adams said. Brown then went to the hospital for treatment.
Adams said he was impressed with the way both law enforcement officers and Brown handled themselves during the entire encounter.
"I just think that is a powerful message about how the community, the family, the church and law enforcement can work together, and it prevented what could have been another shooting," he said.
Police Chief Fred Fletcher said he is glad that Brown is now safely in custody and receiving medical treatment.
"I think it was a huge success for relationship building," he said. "This is a guy who very much did not want to go into custody. I think Kevin Adams deserves a ton of credit for working with the community."
Adams said Brown told him that he wanted to be a mechanic or a barber, and that he'd been on edge recently because of ongoing gang violence.
"He was basically saying that he's been through a lot," Adams said. "There has been a lot of gang violence and one of his friends was recently killed. He was saying there's been rival gang activity and he knew that they were going back and forth so he was kind of frightened for his life for that."
The man's family doesn't attend Olivet Baptist Church, Adams said. He added this is not the first time he's helped people turn themselves in.
Brown is charged with two counts of attempted murder, as well as unlawful possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.
He has a lengthy criminal history in Hamilton County, including a previous charge of attempted first-degree murder in 2006. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated assault in that case and was sentenced to eight years.
Records from the Tennessee Department of Correction show that Brown was released from prison in May 2015. He was last arrested in February 2016.
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