1 week Ago
A woman with purported ties to an extremist movement faces criminal charges following a police chase that ended in a multi-vehicle crash that left one dead and seven injured in downtown Charleston on April 26. Margie Kathy Brown, 54, is accused of leading North Charleston police on a chase into downtown Charleston in a U-Haul box truck that ended with a collision involving two pedestrians and three other vehicles, authorities said. She and a male passenger told police they were sovereign citizens when officers took them into custody, according to North Charleston police spokesman Harve Jacobs.
Sovereign citizens are anti-government extremists who believe that they are separate, or "sovereign," from the United States, and therefore do not have to answer to law enforcement or any government authority, according to the FBI. Brown is charged with reckless homicide caused by a vehicle, failure to stop for a blue light, and failure to stop for a blue light resulting in bodily injury. She is also facing a municipal violation from North Charleston police for making an illegal right turn on red.
Brown was booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center just before 12:30 a.m. April 27.
She is expected to have a bail hearing April 28. A box truck crashed on Meeting Street the evening of April 26, 2025, after a pursuit with North Charleston police following an attempted traffic stop on Dorchester Road. Jacobs said the episode played out this way: North Charleston police officers tried to pull Brown over at the intersection of Dorchester and Meeting Street roads shortly before 5 p.
m. Saturday. Instead of stopping, Brown fled down Dorchester Road with a male passenger before getting on Interstate 26 going east toward downtown.
North Charleston police pursued the truck down I-26 to Septima P. Clark Parkway, commonly known as the Crosstown. Brown turned left toward King Street, and North Charleston police ended their pursuit at the intersection of Columbus and King streets.
CRASH LEAVES 1 DEAD, 7 INJURED: J ust before 5 p.m. Saturday, North Charleston police said, their officers tried to stop a box truck at Dorchester and Meeting Street roads but the driver wouldn’t pull over.
Police pursued the truck as it drove onto I-26 eastbound to the Crosstown in Charleston. Police stopped their pursuit at King and Columbus streets. The truck driver turned onto Meeting Street and crashed near the intersection with Reid Street, police said.
Brown went down Columbus to Meeting Street, one of the main arteries into Charleston’s bustling tourism district, which was in full swing on an pleasant spring afternoon. After turning a corner, she drove into oncoming traffic on Meeting Street in an effort to evade police and crashed near the road's intersection with Reid Street, Lance Cpl. Brittany Glover of S.
C. Highway Patrol said in an April 27 release. The area is bordered by businesses, residential areas and a hotel — and often teeming with people on foot.
The box truck struck two pedestrians, both of whom were transported to a local hospital with injuries, Glover said. The truck then collided with a Mercedes sedan with three people inside, all of whom were also hospitalized. The impact caused the Mercedes to strike a motorcycle with two riders which, in turn, crashed into a large Chevrolet SUV.
Nobody inside the SUV was injured, but one of the people on the motorcycle died at the scene. The other rider was taken to a local hospital, Glover said. The deceased victim has not yet been publicly identified.
The male passenger in the truck was also hospitalized, Glover confirmed. It is unclear at this time whether he will face charges. Police cars from multiple agencies block off Meeting Street at Woolfe Street in downtown Charleston after a fatal crash following a police pursuit on Saturday, April 26, 2025.
A number of questions remained outstanding Sunday, including what prompted police to try to stop the U-Haul in the first place. Also unclear is to what extent Brown and her passenger are involved in the larger sovereign citizens movement. The movement, started in the early 1970s, continues to attract followers who consider themselves exempt from U.
S. law, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center . Their rejection of legal documentation such as Social Security Numbers, drivers’ licenses, vehicle registration and other forms of government identification has led to frequent interactions with law enforcement, the center stated.
A box truck crashed on Meeting Street the evening of April 26, 2025, after a pursuit with North Charleston police following an attempted traffic stop on Dorchester Road. Court records show Brown has a criminal record dating to at least the early 2000s, when she was convicted of driving under suspension and of being a habitual traffic offender. She has pending charge of second-degree assault stemming from a 2022 arrest in North Charleston, records show.
Details of that incident were not immediately available April 27. Charleston police closed Meeting Street from Spring to Mary streets after the crash, and the roadway remained closed for roughly seven hours before reopening after midnight. More than two hours after the crash, the truck still sat parked on the side of the road, with its back gate up and emergency hazard lights on.
It appeared to have a couch and multiple mattresses packed into its rear compartment. Police investigate a fatal crash on Meeting Street after a police pursuit of a box truck down Interstate 26 and through downtown on Saturday, April 26, 2025. Yellow police tape snaked along the sidewalk and across the roadway, blocking access to the site.
Several people milled about watching the scene shortly after 7 p.m., but all said they did not witness the crash.
North Charleston and Charleston police officers huddled a short distance away, conferring with troopers from the Highway Patrol. The next morning, cars and pedestrians travelled along that same stretch of Meeting Street. The corner where the crash occurred was completely clear — no remnants of the incident or the investigation remained.
The corner of Meeting and Reid streets in downtown Charleston on Sunday, April 27, 2025. This intersection is where a U-Haul box truck fleeing from police crashed into other vehicles and pedestrians the previous evening, resulting in 1 death and 7 injuries. Charleston Mayor William Cogswell said in statement to The Post and Courier on April 27 that "our hearts are with the families of the victims affected by this senseless violence.
" "We are working closely with the North Charleston Police Department to determine where this incident began. Crime does not recognize jurisdictional boundaries, which is why strong collaboration is essential," Cogswell said. "We fully support pursuing the maximum legal consequences for those responsible for the irreparable harm they have caused.
" Glenn Smith contributed to this report..
