WALDORF, Md. — The mother of a 20-year-old man accused of killing a 73-year old woman using a stolen forklift from a Lowes store in Waldorf early Sunday says she had called the Charles County Sheriff's Office for help in the hours before the bizarre incident.
Kristy Brown said her son, Bryce Caleb Timothy Brown, appeared to be in a mental health crisis Saturday evening when she called for deputies to come to her home in Waldorf and help find him after he had fled from the house.
“I kept screaming 'come get him come get him,'" Brown said as she recalled her 911 phone call. "It took them maybe 20 minutes. By the time they got here he was gone.”
Bryce Brown is accused of breaking into a nearby Lowes store on Crain Highway in Waldorf at about 12:40 a.m. Sunday.
Investigators say he used the machine to smash through security gates into the parking lot of the store. At that point investigators report he rammed a car which happened to have a 73-year-old woman sleeping inside.
When the woman got out the car to flee, investigators say Brown used the forklift to run her down, killing her.
The forklift was then found abandoned with the victim's body underneath the machine about a half mile away in the parking lot of a Home Depot on Crain Highway.
Brown is accused of stealing her car from the Lowes parking lot where the incident began.
The Charles County Sheriff's office announced Monday that they arrested Brown after locating the car near his home.
The victim was identified as 73-year-old Gloristine Pinkney of Waldorf. Her family has not issued a statement.
Authorities say Pinkney and Brown did not know each other.
In addition to grieving for her son's apparent mental breakdown and arrest, Brown's mother said she is shattered by the death of Ms. Pinkney.
“I'm just so sorry. I'm so sorry," Brown said. "My heart aches for the family of the victim as well as my heart. I'm heartbroken."
Brown said her son graduated from Friendship Tech Prep in D.C. in 2021 and went to Bridgewater College in Virginia on an academic scholarship, but a descent into mental illness soon began. She said it worsened after an active shooter incident at the college in February of 2022 that killed two people.
"We have tried to get Bryce help, but as an adult there's nothing that I can do after the age of 18," his mother said. "So whatever we tried, if he refused, there was nothing we could do."
She described the situation as frustrating.
Brown said she will ask a judge to hold her son for a mental health evaluation when he appears in court for a bond hearing.