Gwinnett Firefighters Believe Murder, Arson Were Likely Their Captor's Goals

Lauren Brown made several demands during the recent Suwanee SWAT standoff with Gwinnett Police, but his desired outcome was obvious to one of his hostages.

"My personal opinion," Tim Hollingsworth said Tuesday, "was that he wanted to board up the house, kill us, set the house on fire, and then let the fire department come in and put out the fire.

"He wanted so bad to see it on TV."

Hollingsworth and the four other Gwinnett Fire and Emergency Services officers discussed the incident publicly for the first time at fire department headquarters Tuesday (April 16). The other fire officers were Jody Moss, Jason Schuon, Chip Echols and Sydney Garner.

Brown, who lived at 2440 Walnut Grove Way, was shot to death in a gunfire exchange with a Gwinnett Police SWAT officer April 10. That officer, who since has been released from the hospital, was identified as Sgt. Jason Teague.

Brown's possible desire to see the incident on television was not lost on Schuon, who quickly undid the cable box at the house. "Genius," was how Gwinnett Police Cpl. Jake Smith, who was at the news conference, described that move.

Smith added Tuesday that Brown fired six shots when SWAT officers entered the house. Teague, the Gwinnett officer, fired about 15.

Brown did not take long to reveal that his 911 call was a ruse.

"Now for the real reason you're here," he told the firefighters. He pulled a revolver on them, and pulled back bed covers to reveal two more handguns. Later in the ordeal, he produced two more WWII-era weapons from his closet.

He made his hostages take off their shirts, to show him they were not armed.

"He said (the ordeal) would turn out exactly the way he envisioned it."

Early on, Hollingsworth suggested that he brew a pot of coffee, as a mood lightener. "There were coffee grounds all over -- I was shaking."

This appeared initially on Suwanee Patch.