Fired-upon trooper 'glad to be here'

By RICK BRUNDRETT - rbrundrett@thestate.com

ORANGEBURG — Highway Patrol Cpl. Quincy Mitchell “Mitch” Brown knew he was under heavy fire last week in a convenience store parking lot in rural Orangeburg County.

“I can remember thinking, ‘When are these shots going to end?” Brown, 32, said Monday in his first public comments since the May 4 ordeal.

“It seems like they were going on and on and on.”

Brown was shot three times — two rounds struck his protective vest, destroying a portable radio, he said, and the third hit and broke his left forearm.

His left arm was in a cast and sling as he spoke to reporters at the Highway Patrol’s Troop 7 headquarters in Orangeburg. A permanent metal plate was screwed to the outside of the broken bone, he said.

Brown, who had been promoted to corporal just three days before the shooting, said he plans to return to work, though he doesn’t know when.

“I’m glad to be here,” the eight-year veteran said. “I’m glad to be alive.”

Brown was shot after he stopped a car for speeding at about 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the El Cheapo convenience store on U.S. 176 near U.S. 301, authorities said.

At least eight rounds from a .45-caliber pistol were fired at Brown from inside the suspect’s car, breaking out the back window, 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said.

Brown was shot after he had detained the driver and was in the process of handcuffing one of two passengers outside the vehicle, authorities said.

The shooter and the other two suspects fled on foot after the shooting but were apprehended, authorities said.

Anthony D. Glover, 21, who authorities said was the triggerman, and his two uncles — Anthony T. Glover, 34, and Michael Glover, 37 — all of Columbia, are charged with assault and battery with intent to kill.

During Monday’s news conference, Department of Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said Brown couldn’t discuss certain details of the shooting because it still was under investigation. Brown, for example, couldn’t say how many shots he fired back at the gunman.

Brown said he felt two “stings” under his protective vest but didn’t realize he had been shot in the arm until after he had run into the convenience store. He said one man used his belt while another used his T-shirt to try to stop the bleeding.

“Everyone was real concerned,” he said. “The people at the gas station really stepped up and helped me.”

Brown, who spent five years with the U.S. Army’s military police before becoming a trooper, said he has been forced to draw his gun before while on duty — but he had never fired it until the May 4 incident.

He said he always tries to prepare mentally for the worst situations, though he added he will be even more cautious when he returns to work.

When he was working in Berkeley County in 2002, he said, Highway Patrol Cpl. Kenneth J. Johnson, 38, was shot fatally during a traffic checkpoint.

“I don’t feel like I’ve done anything extraordinary or anything different. I just truly believe it wasn’t my time.”

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484.