Background: Body camera footage from a Daytona Beach police officer shows him tasing the suspect (Daytona Beach Police Department). Inset: Jayden Brown (Volusia County Sheriff”s Office).
An 18-year-old Florida man was tased after allegedly trying to steal cars at a BMW dealership and then attempting to steal the truck of a responding officer.
Jayden Brown stands charged with three counts of grand theft of a motor vehicle, burglary of an occupied dwelling, and criminal mischief. The underlying incident occurred on the evening of Jan. 14.
At about 5 p.m., Brown, his girlfriend, and their friend went to a BMW dealership in Daytona Beach, a city in Central Florida located on the Atlantic Coast. “[D]espite having no money or credit,” they tried to buy multiple vehicles, states a charging affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime.
Brown “had not slept for several days and had repeatedly claimed he was going to become rich and buy 3 BMW’s,” according to his girlfriend. The friend added that Brown “has not been in the right state of mind lately” and that the trio left and returned to the dealership three times “to figure out how to purchase the vehicle.”
Authorities said Brown had “argued with management about being unable to purchase a vehicle,” and when he returned the final time, he allegedly tried to enter multiple vehicles on the property. The suspect stated “he was going to take the vehicle and leave” before running to the back of the dealership, “entering an area that is only accessible to employees of the business.”
He reportedly gained access to a BMW X7, “sat inside the vehicle and appeared to search for the start/stop button in an attempt to start the vehicle.” One employee told police that as he was cleaning the vehicle, he heard his co-workers yelling at someone to leave, and then the suspect jumped out of the vehicle.
Both the suspect’s girlfriend and friend told authorities they did not know of Brown’s intentions beforehand.
The Daytona Beach Police Department provided body camera footage showing an officer arriving at the scene. The officer can be seen getting out of his truck when the suspect comes running around the back of it. The officer advises him to “get on the f— ground,” but the suspect opens the vehicle’s door, and the officer tases him.
The man alleged to be Brown screams in his incapacitated state lying on the door before the footage cuts and shows him handcuffed on the ground and being searched. “You tried to steal my car,” the officer says matter-of-factly.
“It’s alright, I’ll be out by tomorrow, it’s all good,” the suspect says after another cut in the video. More officers are standing nearby at this time. The suspect then proceeds to ramble, stating things such as “I get thousands of guns from who I know in the military a month” and “I didn’t steal anything yet; I was just trying to find out where my car was.”
“Yet,” an officer repeats.
“What do you have against me that you can do this right now?” the suspect says after another cut. “Get me out these cuffs or you lose your job tomorrow.”
Brown was transported to an area hospital to be checked out and then brought to police headquarters. While being transported, he appears to try and detach the camera from its position, and after being processed, he allegedly “began kicking the security camera in the holding cell, causing the frame of the camera to break.”
The girlfriend and friend of Brown were not taken into custody.
Brown made his first appearance in court the next day. He is scheduled to return for an arraignment on Feb. 10. He is not listed as currently in the Volusia County jail.
