Rampage on loader ends with 2 dead

GAFFNEY - Miniature Christmas trees flanked the front door of the white two-story farmhouse on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Cherokee County. Cars sat in the driveway and off to the side of the house on Pleasant School Road.

But the house wasn't the scene of a holiday party. Instead, it was the place where family and friends gathered to mourn the death of James Ellie Brogden.

Brogden was one of two Gaffney men killed hours earlier after a chase involving a piece of machinery weighing about 10 tons that was stolen from Cherokee Speedway.

Brogden died after Aaron Christopher Saunders used a Case 821 front-end loader with a forklift appendage to hoist a 2005 Toyota and drop the vehicle on Brogden, according to Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler.

Cherokee County sheriff's deputies said they fired "several rounds" into the cab after Saunders turned the machinery toward them.

Fowler said in a news release that Brogden, 67, of 124 Farm Wind Road died at the scene. Saunders, 28, of 1252 Ellis Ferry Road died at 6:51 a.m. while in surgery at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. Saunders had been airlifted to the hospital by the Regional One helicopter.

Fowler has ordered autopsies to assist his investigation.

State Law Enforcement Division spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons said SLED received a call from Cherokee County authorities to investigate the incident about 4 a.m. Saturday.

It is customary for law enforcement agencies to request SLED investigations of shootings involving officers.

Timmons estimated the investigation could take several days or weeks before the report is complete.

Gaffney resident Dick Norris was shocked when the phone rang early Saturday. Norris, 71, said he's known Brogden, whom he referred to as Cecil, for "more than half a century."

Norris, a lieutenant colonel with the Salvation Army, supervised Brogden's work as an officer with the Salvation Army. He said Brogden had a 44-year career that took him and his wife, Elma Grey Brogden, to Tennessee, Florida and Texas. After Brogden retired, he helped out at a center in Charlotte, N.C.

Norris said Brogden devoted

his "blazing calling" to helping those with substance-abuse problems at adult rehabilitation facilities.

"He loved those he worked with like his own children," Norris said. "He was magnificent in his approach."

Norris said when Brogden retired, the couple moved to Gaffney to be close to family. The Brogdens were house-sitting at the Pleasant School Road home owned by their son-in-law, Todd Morgan, a physician, and daughter, Pam Morgan, who went to the coast for the weekend.

Fowler said Brogden heard the commotion and walked outside to the end of the home's driveway, where Saunders steered the loader toward him.

The incident began about 2:30 a.m., Fowler said, when Saunders took the loader from 153 Speedway Road.

A deputy spotted the loader while patrolling Lemuel's Road about two miles from the speedway and attempted to stop it.

Fowler said Saunders refused to stop and the pursuit continued onto Concord Road and Pleasant School Road, where Saunders drove into a yard, toppled trees, rammed

two patrol cars and attempted to strike a deputy who was out of his car.

Dean Christopher, who lives at the corner of Pleasant School and Concord roads, said he had just finished watching a movie at 3 a.m. when he heard the rumbling and went to observe the situation.

"It was like a parade, they were going so slow," Christopher said. "There was a deputy at the edge of the fence with his gun out, and I saw the front-end loader. The deputy hollered, 'Get back in the house.' "

Christopher said the loader and deputies then went north on Pleasant School Road and out of his line of sight.

"It's really surreal," Christopher said.

"You see stuff like that happening in California on television. You don't think about that happening around here," he said.

Saturday's rampage wasn't the first traffic-related disturbance caused by Saunders this year.

The Gaffney Ledger reported in March that Saunders was charged with driving under suspension, malicious damage to property, possession of a suspended driver's license, driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident, breaking arrest and simple possession of marijuana.

Saunders was accused of using a 1986 Honda with a dealer tag to intentionally strike six vehicles scattered over several locations and then fleeing on foot. The Ledger reported that Saunders was taken into custody at a Concord Road residence, and officers needed to deploy a Taser three times to control him.