Cobb County, Georgia- 33 year old Brian Brown-Easley, was a former U.S. Marine who struggled with PTSD, schizophrenia, and paranoia since his deployments to Kuwait and Iraq. After an honorable discharge in 2005, Brian Brown-Easley returned home and moved in with his mother in Jefferson, Georgia. In the years following his honorable discharge, Brian Brown-Easley received monthly disability checks of $892 from the VA. These checks went towards child support and paying rent. For Brown-Easley, these monthly payments were essential. So, when his check didn’t arrive on July 1, 2017, he panicked. In the days after he noticed the check was missing, Brown-Easley frantically called the VA’s Veterans Crisis Line eight or nine times. The hotline was designed to provide suicide prevention and crisis intervention services for veterans 24-7, but allegedly, the VA staff hung up on him during several of these calls. Soon after he visited the office in person pleading with the VA for help, but they only gave him a pamphlet, so he refused to leave until they truly helped him. Soon, police officers arrived, slammed Mr. Brian to the ground and kicked him out of the building injuring him in the process.

July 7, 2022, after being arrested and thrown out of the VA Mr. Brian made the desperate decision to hold up the bank to demand the $892, he depended on for child support and rent. He claimed to have a bomb in his backpack but promised and apologized to his two hostages reassuring them that he would not harm them. He was cited saying, that he might be the “worst bank robber ever.” And when the WSB editor asked him for his Social Security number, he joked, “You’re not going to steal my money too, are you?”

During the tense three-hour standoff, he stayed remarkably courteous toward those he was holding hostage. He let them make phone calls to family and stay in touch with law enforcement. One hostage later told the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, “He kept apologizing, saying, ‘Ladies, I’m so sorry.’ I actually felt sympathy for him. I told him, ‘I get it you’re in a tough situation,’ and he responded, ‘Thank you. That means a lot.’”

Mr. Brian spoke with negotiators and agreed to release one of his hostages, in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. But after a three-hour standoff, and an agreed exchange. Dennis Pointe a member of the tactical team despite hearing over the SWAT team’s radio that negotiations were being made, and despite an order from the assistant SWAT commander not to shoot “at this time,” decided to snipe Mr. Brian killing him instantly.

“There was no effort or energy being put forth toward releasing somebody,” Ponte would later say, according to Task & Purpose.

After a bomb squad removed his backpack investigators found out Brown-Easley did not, in fact, have a bomb, and that he insisted in calls to authorities and reporters that he did not intend to harm anyone. Soon after the VA later discovered they made a mistake in his case, yet as of 2024 EDIT 2025 they still have not paid his family what he was owed. This petition is to reopen, reinvestigate and pay the family of Mr. Brian what they are owed.

On a phone call from the Wells Fargo, Easley told his daughter Jayla that he loved her and to work hard in school. (Hector René Membreno-Canales)

Watch his Story Here

Donate to his Daughter's GoFundMe

Surveillance Footage

Works Cited:

Gell, Aaron. “‘They Didn’T Have to Kill Him’: The Death of Lance Corporal Brian Easley.” Task & Purpose, 9 Apr. 2018, taskandpurpose.com/news/death-lance-corporal-brian-easley.

Morgan, Amber. “The True Story of Brian Brown-Easley That Inspired the Movie ‘Breaking.’” All That’s Interesting, 16 Aug. 2023, allthatsinteresting.com/brian-brown-easley.