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Lt. Scot Stowe was honored posthumously at a Lavonia City Council meeting.
BY SAMANTHA SINCLAIR
FRANKLIN COUNTY CITIZEN
LAVONIA — Police Chief Bruce Carlisle honored a hero officer posthumously at the Lavonia City Council meeting Monday night, March 7.
Carlisle presented Lt. Scot Stowe’s family with a resolution commending Stowe that state Rep. Alan Powell presented on the floor of the state House of Representatives in 2010, as well as a plaque the U.S. Marshals Service presented to the department.
Both accolades had been in Carlisle’s possession for a while, and he felt the items should be in the possession of Stowe’s family instead, the chief said.
“I want to make sure these accolades go where they’re supposed to go,” Carlise said at the meeting. “They don’t belong to me.”
Stowe was instrumental in the capture of Johnny Mack Brown in 2008, and the recognitions were in response to the department bringing the escaped state prisoner back into custody.
Brown, serving a life sentence for shooting an armored car guard in 1997, escaped from Hays Georgia Correctional Institution in Trion on Oct. 13, 2008.
He then kidnapped a young woman, and forced her to drive him to Franklin County, Carlisle said.
Brown became one of the 15 on the U.S. Marshals Service most wanted list.
On Nov. 15, 2008, Stowe was working the night shift and saw someone walking down the railroad tracks in the late night/early morning hours.
Stowe went to check on the individual, who officers later learned was Brown.
“It was just good police work,” Carlisle said. “His whole self intuition of this incident got this guy captured.”
As Stowe approached Brown, the fugitive ran, and fled into the woods.
Stowe caught up to Brown, and they got into a struggle, with Brown attempting to take Stowe’s gun.
Two other officers arrived and helped subdue Brown and take him into custody.
Stowe is the only Lavonia Police Department officer to receive the Medal of Valor Award.
He passed away in his sleep Feb. 8, 2018.