Aaron Saunders and James Brogden
Highway Patrol were chasing a front-end loader Saturday morning, a front-end loader that had been stolen from Cherokee County Speedway. The person who stole the vehicle was Aaron Christopher Saunders, 28. Police tried stopping him by shooting out the tires, but Aaron was having none of it. Police say he intentionally tried to run over officers, even running over one of the patrol cars. Aaron drove the front-loader to 973 Pleasant School Road, tearing down trees and signs on the way there. Aaron began destroying a car at that residence when a man house-sitting for his son-in-law, James Ellie Brogden, 67, came out to investigate, Aaron killed him with the front-loader.
Deputies then shot Aaron, where he later died after being airlifted to the hospital. At first, his rampage remained a mystery, but now more details have come out as to why Aaron did what he did. He was drunk. And angry.
Seems as if he had a little tiff with his girlfriend, April Holcomb, because *gasp* he was drunk. He then went to a bar and sent her a text message stating that he was gonna be on the front page. But she didn’t take that seriously because, well shit, he did that all the time when he got drunk. In fact, she said, “He was drunk. He’s one of those people that doesn’t need to be drinking because he’ll black and out not know what’s going on.”
Two different reports state two different ways in which Brogden was killed. One states that Aaron beelined towards him when he came out to investigate and ran over him. Another states that Aaron dropped a car on top of him. But April doesn’t think it was on purpose. Oh, no…not Aaron. “He’s not a monster like they made him out to be,” she said. “I don’t think he intentionally did it. I think he didn’t see the guy because if you’re in a big old loader you cannot see because it’s dark outside and you got the car picked up”
But it really doesn’t matter if it was intentional or not, as either way this drunk asshole took out a man who has done nothing but try to improve the community around him. Brogden was a major in the Salvation Army where he had served for 40 years. He also worked at a rehabilitation center in Charlotte, NC.
“Cecil Brogden was one of the finest men I’ve probably ever met…He is a man of integrity — a great Christian man, a man of faith, a man of the Word. One of the finest preachers the Salvation Army has ever had.” Major Dalton Cunningham stated.
And what does he get for his efforts? Well, for some of you, he is playing ping-pong with God about right now. But to me? He met his end at the bottom of the treads of a goddamn front-end loader, leaving behind a wife and three children. Just doesn’t seem right, does it? All that “mysterious ways” crap I guess.
No real reason for me posting this, as there will be no trial or anything like that. It just always burns me when good people get taken out in completely stupid ways by equally stupid people. In Brogden’s wildest dreams, I cannot imagine that he ever thought his death would be in the form of a 10-ton front-end loader driven by a drunk, at 3 in the morning, in front of his son-in-law’s house. Tragic. So for all you praying people, tell God I said thanks for taking another good one, and for blessing some police officers with good aim.
Tags: aaron Saunders, alcohol, April Holcomb, Drunk, front-end loader, James Brogden, Salvation Army
Drink the Kool-Aid