Police honor residents for heroic efforts

ALACHUA – Alachua’s police department honored two residents who stopped a Georgia fugitive from attempted kidnapping several months ago.

Chief of Police Joel DeCoursey, Jr. presented a plaque at a City Commission meeting on Feb. 11 for Bradley Winburn and Devin Carroll for their assistance in the capture of a felon who attempted to carjack a woman outside of the Alachua Branch Library on Dec. 9, 2012.

Police said the fleeing felon, Donald Mac Brown, attempted to commandeer the victim’s vehicle by pointing a revolver at her, hitting her in the face with the barrel of the gun and putting his hands around her throat. During this encounter, Winburn and Carroll heard the victim screaming and ran toward the noise. Both came to the assistance of the victim and went in pursuit of Brown.

Brown, 36, had two warrants for arrest from Georgia for child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes and solicitation of sodomy and sexual exploitation of a minor.

Brown had been on the run since at least Dec. 5, 2012 when bulletins seeking him and his partner, 57-year-old David Crawford, were issued in the Conyers, Ga., area. Crawford also had pending child molestation charges.

Brown was charged with attempted kidnapping, armed burglary, resisting arrest without violence and tampering with evidence.

Winburn and Carroll were not at the meeting to receive the award, and DeCoursey joked that they were probably out saving someone else that night.

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