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Slaying suspect linked to 'hit' boast
Monday, March 19, 2001 By Jan Ackerman and Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
For several weeks, the police in Aliquippa had heard rumors about a "hit list" with some of their names on it, but most of them weren't much worried.
After all, this is the same town where the former chief, Bill Alston, exchanged a volley of close-range gunfire with a juvenile and where residents of Valley Terrace, a housing development on a hill behind the police station, once fired shots at patrol cars in the parking lot.
"You get threats all the time," one officer said yesterday.
Thursday night was different.
James William Naim, a young Aliquippa officer working in his first police job, was ambushed and killed. And state police say Jamie M. Brown, the second man arrested in the shooting, boasted to informants that he had a "hit list of policemen" who were going to die and that "this was only the first and there would be other policemen killed."
Brown, 23, of Highland Avenue, Aliquippa, was charged Saturday with killing Naim, 32, who was shot twice in the head at 8:15 p.m. Thursday while patrolling in Linmar Terrace, a public housing community where violence has been common over the years. On Friday, police arrested the first suspect, 18-year-old Darnell Hines of Linmar, whom Brown called "Young Buck."
According to an affidavit filed by state Trooper Don Neill, a confidential informant gave police information about the shooting and a second informant told police about the hit list.
Yesterday, Beaver County District Attorney Dale Fouse said he planned to talk with state police to try to learn more about that list. Officers preparing for Naim's funeral service last night said they didn't know who was named on the list.
Brown's attorney, James M. Ecker, said he had no idea what police are talking about. Ecker said he has not seen or heard anything about a hit list.
"Anybody can say anything," he said.
Last night, mourners lined up outside Darroch Funeral Home on Mill Street to pay their respects. There were so many that latecomers couldn't find parking spaces. Aliquippa officers, state troopers and police from across Beaver County arrived with their police badges partially covered with black bands.
Back at the station, flowers piled up at the foot of the station flagpole and the flag continued to hang at half-staff. A memo inside said foot patrols have been suspended in Linmar and nearby Griffith Heights, but officers will continue to patrol those areas by car.
Naim, an Aliquippa police officer for 14 months, died of two gunshot wounds to the head in what police described as an "ambush." Police won't say which man they believe fired or what kind of gun was used. Residents said they heard eight or nine gunshots, but Naim never drew his pistol. It was still in his holster when colleagues found his body lying in the grass.
On Saturday, police searched two residences, one on Ravine Street where Brown's grandmother lives, and Brown's home on Highland Avenue, where he lives with his mother. From both homes, police said they collected drugs, drug paraphernalia, a large sum of money and a handgun.
Neill said the first informant heard gunshots while driving on Waugamann Street to Linmar Terrace. A red car approached at a high rate of speed, nearly striking his vehicle. Two men were in the red car; the informant identified one of them as Brown.
Sometime later, the informant saw Brown and asked why he had been in such a hurry. He said Brown told him, "We just put a bullet in the man's head," information that was not yet public. According to the informant, Brown also said that police had arrested his "boy," a reference to Hines, but if they tested him for gun powder residue, Hines would be clean.
Brown told the informant that police wouldn't be able to make a case against him, either.
The informant also told police that he had seen Hines running from the scene of the shooting. Neill said that information was confirmed through interviews with other witnesses.
The informant said Brown also threatened him, warning that if he learned that anyone was talking to police, they would "get dusted" for cooperating with police.
Later Thursday evening, the informant said Brown asked him to darken the alley behind Brown's residence. The informant complied, but left on one light that would be activated by a motion detector. As a result, the informant said he observed Brown and two other men carry about 12 firearms from Brown's mother's residence on Highland Avenue to his grandmother's residence on Ravine Street.
The informant said he specifically saw Brown carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and a Desert Eagle with a laser sight. The other two men were carrying out an armful of high-caliber handguns, according to the informant, who said he was paid to help Brown that evening.
Brown is well-known to Aliquippa police. In 1996, he was implicated in the murder of a middle-aged couple, but the charges were dropped when the couple's son was charged.
Brown was arraigned Saturday night before District Justice James F. DiBenedetto in Aliquippa in a heavily guarded proceeding.
Both Brown and Hines are being held without bond in the Beaver County Jail.
KDKA-TV contributed to this report.
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