Prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a man involved in a road rage-related double shooting on New Year’s Day in 2022.
Scott Thomas Brown, 34, was charged with multiple felony counts, including murder, in connection with the shootings of his best friend, Jonathan Camren, 26, and Christopher Ward, 19 at the time. But the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office dropped the murder charges against Brown after prosecutors determined he had acted in self-defense.
About 12:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2022, police responded to the intersection of SW 27 and McKinley, where they found two men had been shot in what officers described as a “traffic-related confrontation.” Camren was taken to a nearby hospital where he died of his injuries. Ward was also wounded in his upper left arm and chest, court records show, but he survived.
Brown’s attorney, Dan Pond, told The Oklahoman “there was never a question that Christopher Ward’s gun killed Jonathan Camren,” but prosecutors questioned whether or not Brown acted in defense of himself and Camren when firing his own gun at Ward.
“The order of shots was incredibly important in determining who shot first and in determining who was acting in self-defense,” Pond said. “Scott Brown was charged under (Oklahoma’s) ‘felony murder doctrine,’ which says that if he’s committing a felony, and that felony is linked to the death of somebody else, then he can be liable for the homicide, even if he didn’t do the actual killing act.”
Prosecutors initially believed Brown shot Ward first, and that Ward shot Camren in response. But new forensic and medical evidence presented to state attorneys “showed as definitively as possible,” Pond said, that Ward shot first, and Brown shot second, wounding Ward.
Court filings show Brown pleaded no contest Monday to the felony charge of pointing a firearm, which means Brown can no longer legally carry a gun.
Pond also said Ward was initially arrested after his wounds were treated at a local hospital following the 2022 shooting, but he was later released. Ward was not officially charged in connection to Camren’s death.