Samuel E. Brown Jr. was the type of friend who’d call to check in out of the blue.
It took time to earn his trust, but once you had it you could expect to be minding your business and see a call from Brown coming in, said Walter Robinson Jr., a longtime friend.
“I’d say, ‘Sam, what’s going on?’ ‘Nothing, brother, you just crossed my mind. Whatever’s going on, you got this. We can make something work,’” Robinson said.
As a friend, Brown wasn’t looking for recognition. He just wanted to be there for people. Just, “If you need it, I got it. I got you,” Robinson added.
Brown, 56, known to his friends as “Big Sam” and “Unc,” worked as road manager for touring act and radio personality DJ Quicksilva and, over the years, sold cars at local dealerships, always ready to help find a good deal. Friends describe him as a mentor and helper to many, a good father, and a “person of the people.”
When word got out that he’d died after an early-morning interaction with a Baltimore County Police officer in February, Robinson estimated that “half the city was breaking down.”
“Sam, as a person we know, he’s not an aggressive type of person,” he said. “When we heard something happened to him, it threw everyone for a loop.”
In the weeks since, a movement has grown calling for “Justice for Big Sam,” amid lingering questions and an ongoing investigation into the fatal interaction by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office’s Independent Investigations Division.
Brown died on February 27, 11 days after he was injured by Officer Derek Hadel in a confrontation captured on body camera. Footage shows Brown collapsing after two swift punches by Hadel and suffering an apparent head wound, blood almost immediately pooling on the ground.
The state medical examiner’s office has ruled his death a homicide, a medical rather than legal ruling that does not guarantee criminal charges. That decision rests with the Independent Investigations Division, which is charged with investigating all Maryland fatalities involving police, including shootings, force incidents, in-custody deaths, and vehicle pursuits. Since October 2023, it has cleared officers of wrongdoing in 95% of cases, Baltimore Beat reported earlier this year.
Hadel’s employer, Baltimore County Police, will be responsible for investigating any police policy violations, which could result in disciplinary actions such as suspension or termination. A spokeswoman for the agency confirmed Hadel is on administrative duty.
Brown’s family, their attorney William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr., and friends across the Baltimore region will be watching closely.
“He carried himself with dignity, and he had a charisma that gave him stature in the community,” Murphy said in an interview with the Beat. “Everyone looked up to Big Sam.”
“He carried himself with dignity, and he had a charisma that gave him stature in the community,” Murphy said in an interview with the Beat. “Everyone looked up to Big Sam.”
Hadel and Brown’s interaction began shortly after 3 a.m. February 16 with a call for police to check on the welfare of a man whose vehicle was sitting stationary at the intersection of Security Boulevard and Whitehead Court in Woodlawn, according to a news release from investigators.
Body camera footage begins mid-conversation, with Brown sitting in his vehicle in an orange vest. After nearly a minute, Hadel appears to abruptly slam the door shut. Brown then exits the car.
Audio of this initial interaction is not included in the video due to a brief delay between audio and video in the Axon body-worn cameras used by the Baltimore Police Department.
Both men are out of the car for about 10 seconds before Hadel punches Brown and he collapses.
During that time, Brown approaches Hadel and appears to swat at his arms twice, as Hadel instructs him to “get in your car.” Brown is speaking unintelligibly. The second swat occurs as Hadel puts out an arm to push Brown away.
Hadel then immediately delivers two swift punches, which appear to strike Brown’s face, while telling him to “get in your fucking car, sir.” Brown topples to the ground after Hadel’s blows, audibly striking his head on the pavement.
In the roughly six and a half minutes of footage that follow, before medics arrive, Brown does not appear to be conscious. At one point, Hadel mutters, “Trying to help you out,” seemingly to Brown.
Additional officers begin to arrive roughly a minute after Hadel’s punches. Hadel and the others place Brown in handcuffs and ankle shackles and bandage his head wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Audio during this period is periodically muted, which a caption says is “to protect the integrity of the investigation.”
A police case report obtained by the Beat says that police intended to arrest Brown for second-degree assault and driving while intoxicated. An accompanying narrative by an unidentified officer says Brown was asleep in the driver’s seat when Hadel arrived and that Hadel smelled a light odor of alcohol.
The police report describes that Hadel asked Brown if he was okay and Brown “advised that he was fine and that he did not need assistance.” Hadel then “told Defendant Brown that he was not okay and needed to listen to Officer Hadel because Officer Hadel was trying to assist him.” That, police write, is when Brown “began to get confrontational.”
The narrative continues, alleging that Brown “refused to exit his vehicle” until Hadel closed Brown’s door. It goes on to describe that Brown did not listen to Hadel’s commands to “get back” and that Hadel struck Brown with his fists after Brown struck him twice.
“Once both strikes made contact with Defendant Brown he fell to the ground where he subsequently struck the back of his head on the asphalt,” the report said.
The Beat submitted a request for Hadel’s disciplinary file, which would show his track record with the department and any past incidents, which it did not receive by press time. Court records indicate he was accused of domestic violence in 2021 in a case that did not result in a permanent protective order after the petitioner didn’t appear for a court hearing.
The county police department, among the state’s largest with nearly 2,000 sworn officers, may be less scrutinized than Baltimore Police but is not immune to high-profile incidents of violence, including the killing of 17-year-old Christopher Brown by an off-duty officer and the 2016 shooting of Korryn Gaines that also left her young son wounded.
None of the 12 cases investigated by the Independent Investigations Division since 2021 that involved Baltimore County Police have resulted in criminal charges against officers.
Robinson and Eric Brown, another friend of Samuel Brown’s, were initially taken aback by the notion that Brown had gotten into a confrontation with police. Eric Brown said in an interview he suspects something prompted Brown to get out of his car because Brown “ain’t fighting nobody” and “would not initiate nothing like this.”
What began with a wellness check “shouldn’t have to go to this,” Brown said.
Eric Brown met Brown about 35 years ago at a downtown restaurant they regularly visited with friends, he said. They weren’t from the same area of Baltimore but became “die-hard” friends. Samuel Brown had the connections to help others out, he said, and was a “right-hand on everything you needed.”
“Never no enemies,” Eric Brown said. “Always ‘How you doing, bruh?’ ‘How you feeling?’”
He and others said they believe Hadel should have made better efforts to de-escalate the situation and question his use of force. They believe Hadel should lose his job and potentially face criminal charges for his behavior in the confrontation.
“A life lost with no explanation is never a good sign for a family that needs answers,” Eric Brown said. “All my nieces and nephews — not by blood — but I need them to have answers for what happened to their dad, my best friend. That’s all we need is closure.”
“A life lost with no explanation is never a good sign for a family that needs answers,” Eric Brown said. “All my nieces and nephews — not by blood — but I need them to have answers for what happened to their dad, my best friend. That’s all we need is closure.”
Baltimore County Police’s Field Manual instructs officers to use “the least amount of force necessary and proportional” to control a situation, and calls for officers to de-escalate without physical force when “time, circumstances, and safety allow.” Officers are told to consider the totality of the circumstances.
Murphy, the family’s attorney, argued that hitting someone in the face in response to swatting a hand would not be considered proportional.
“No police officer is trained to hit someone in the face, twice, as hard as they can. It’s dangerous. You can break bones in the face,” Murphy said. “Nothing Sam did deserved that response. No citizen who did anything deserves that response.”
The union representing Baltimore County Police, FOP Lodge 4, sees it differently.
“Officer Hadel’s actions were in response to physically aggressive behavior,” FOP President Doug Jess said in a statement. Jess claimed Hadel’s use of force was “consistent” with the department’s “current defensive tactics program.”
“The results were tragic and an investigation is underway,” Jess’ statement added.
Friends and family of Sam’s have rallied behind the hashtag “#JusticeforBigSam,” which was emblazoned on T-shirts they wore at a rally outside county police headquarters in March and which has drawn dozens of social media posts. Some show him dressed up in a tuxedo, in another he smokes a cigar. One video shows him dancing across a blue dance floor wearing sunglasses and a big grin.
Posts circulating about his repast, held at IKONIC Live on March 3, encouraged loved ones to “come ready to dance.” “This will be a Celebration of how much Big Sam enjoyed life,” one post read.