Left: Shaquan Brown drops a pistol in the driveway of a home in Pennsylvania that he attempted to rob. Right: The Smith & Wesson .40 caliber firearm used by Brown in robbery and located by police. (Photos courtesy U.S. Justice Department.)
He cased local business owners in Pennsylvania, looked up where they lived and then made the calculation to rob them at home, even going so far as to zip-tie one nail salon owner and his entire family before delivering a terrifying beating and fleeing with his victim’s hard-earned cash.
Shaquan Brown, 29, of Philadelphia was convicted by a federal jury on Wednesday, the Justice Department announced. Brown was found guilty of multiple charges including conspiracy to commit armed home invasion robberies targeting businesses and attached residences of their owners, robbery affecting interstate commerce and attempted robbery affecting interstate commerce, using and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of robbery, as well as possession of a firearm by a felon.
Prosecutors said that from November 2019 through January 2020, Brown and three of his accomplices plotted their attacks on their victims. It was New Year’s Eve 2019 when Brown and two others stopped a nail salon owner returning to his business in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Brown forced him inside the salon at gunpoint, demanded cash and then tied the man’s wrists and slapped duct tape on his mouth.
Brown and his co-conspirators also beat the man with their fists and pistols. With the nail salon cash in hand, Brown then allegedly set his sights on the man’s home, forcing him to lead them back to his house.
The victim’s wife, children and nanny were home. The robbers tied all of them up and then viciously beat the husband while Brown’s partners ransacked the property.
“We have been watching you for weeks,” Brown said, according to the Justice Department.
A few weeks later, on Jan. 3, when Brown attempted a home invasion again — this time in Downingtown, Pennsylvania — things didn’t go so smoothly. According to an FBI affidavit, Brown attempted a burglary of a home around 10:30 a.m. that day but was foiled when a security system alert was sent to the homeowner’s phone and police. Though the homeowner wasn’t home, the FBI said she was able to use her smartphone and watch men in “dark clothes” attempt to pry open her window.
Responding officers already on the scene witnessed the attempt and a chase ensued. Brown, who wore white gloves and carried a backpack, started to flee but dropped a firearm in the driveway and then quickly picked it up. Officers said they briefly lost sight of Brown, who had run into the woods, in the trees before eventually finding him running through a creek and into a tunnel beneath a small bridge.
The second suspect was not located, but Brown was taken down by police while he was still standing in the creek. The FBI said the contents of his backpack included zip ties, duct tape and a .40 caliber pistol with an “obliterated serial number loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition and 1 round in the chamber.”
“Home invasion robberies are terrifying for victims, shattering their sense of security where they once felt most safe” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said Wednesday. “It’s unconscionable that running a successful business is enough to make you a target for criminals like Shaquan Brown, who prefer taking other people’s money at gunpoint to earning it for themselves. This verdict not only holds Brown accountable for the harm he’s done, it will keep him behind bars for years, so he can’t hurt anyone else.”
Brown will be sentenced this July and he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 84 months in prison or the statutory max of life in prison. He will also be subject to five years supervised release once he’s out.
Brown was previously arrested in 2014 and charged with burglary, conspiracy and related offenses. He pleaded guilty to those charges in 2016 and was sentenced to a little over a year in prison plus four years of probation.
An attorney for Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
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