PART 3: Boy’s dream of leaving trouble behind dies in a gunfight with Salem police

Bobby Brown’s gravestone at City View Cemetery in Salem reads, “Our Bobby, rest in peace. You were always loved.” It shows a tree in memory of those he used to climb at Minto-Brown Island Dog Park. Flowers remained at the site on May 29, 2024 (Ardeshir Tabrizian/Salem Reporter)

Salem police considered the 16-year-old so dangerous they deployed a SWAT team to arrest him.

Robert “Bobby” Fletemier Brown had been evading police for weeks, staying in the east Salem home of a friend.

He was wanted that summer of 2022 for two violent shootings in downtown Salem in a year of escalating danger in the city.

By the end of the year Salem endured 20 shootings of people. One in five victims and suspects…

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