State police didn’t investigate the Bowman attack until 536 days after it occurred and only did so weeks after Bowman brought a civil lawsuit. It ultimately determined Brown “engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions,” failed to report the use of force to his supervisors and “intentionally mislabeled” his body-camera video.
The AP found Brown, who patrolled in northern Louisiana, was involved in 23 use-of-force incidents between 2015 and his 2021 resignation — 19 of which targeted Black people. Brown still faces state charges in the violent arrest of yet another Black motorist, a case in which he boasted in a group chat with other troopers that “it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”
Brown is the son of Bob Brown, a longtime trooper who oversaw statewide criminal investigations and, before retiring, was the agency’s chief of staff. The elder Brown rose to the agency’s second in command despite being reprimanded years earlier for calling Black colleagues the n-word and hanging a Confederate flag in his office.
