00:00:04
[tense music] NARRATOR: In the United
States of America, some of the world's
most dangerous criminals
00:00:11
are locked behind bars. There are few
so cold and callous that being imprisoned only
makes their aggressive
00:00:20
behavior worse. Mikel Brady is one of them. NICK OCHSNER: Mikel Brady has
a history of being violent.
00:00:30
MICHAEL POTTS: He just doesn't
appear that he really has a care in the world for life.
00:00:35
DR. LINA HAJI:
Violence is his niche. Violence is his comfort zone. NARRATOR: As a child,
he violently
00:00:42
attacked his younger sister. - They were playing
a game that resulted in Mikel actually stabbing
his sister in the eye
00:00:51
and leaving her blind. NARRATOR: Brady's
barbarity continued to escalate when he
fearlessly attempted
00:00:58
to gun down law enforcement. NICK OCHSNER: Brady
fires four shots. Two of the shots hit
Trooper Potts in the face.
00:01:05
One shot hits Trooper
Potts in the shoulder, and one shot goes right through
both of Trooper Potts' hands.
00:01:12
NARRATOR: Once
behind bars, Brady, along with four other
inmates, plotted and planned
00:01:18
an escape in the only
way they knew how, with extreme violence. DR. LINA HAJI: This is
Brady's comfort zone.
00:01:25
He likes violence. He likes the rush. He likes hurting people. [suspenseful music]
00:01:32
NICK OCHSNER: They
attack employees with a hammer and scissors. They were stabbed
dozens of times.
00:01:37
[phone rings] HECTOR BRAVO: Mikel
Brady is about as evil as they come because he's
willing to kill
00:01:51
anybody that gets in his way. [theme music] [audio logo] [theme music] NARRATOR: The state
of North Carolina
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locks up more people than
many countries of the world. With an incarceration
rate of 559
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people out of every 100,000. [tense music] These inmates are
spread out across 54
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prisons, including Pasquotank
Correctional Institution. HECTOR BRAVO: Pasquotank
Correctional Institution
00:02:46
is located in Elizabeth
City, North Carolina. It houses approximately
900 plus inmates.
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NICK OCHSNER: It's in a pretty
remote, desolate place. It's basically
four buildings set
00:02:59
in the middle of an otherwise
vacant vast field. Pasquotank Correctional
Institution
00:03:05
houses two types of inmates. One is minimum
security inmates, and the other is what
in North Carolina
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we call close custody inmates. What we think about is
like a maximum security. [foreboding music]
00:03:17
JAMIE MORGAN KANE: Prisons
are a dangerous place because you have
the people there
00:03:21
that have not been able
to exist in a nonviolent, functioning society. Things that happen so often,
stabbings, beatings, killings,
00:03:33
you lose that shock ability. The level of violence
sometimes becomes numbing. NARRATOR: One of Pasquotank
most notorious inmates
00:03:47
was 36-year-old, Mikel Brady. [suspenseful music] NICK OCHSNER: When
you look at what
00:03:58
Brady did at Pasquotank
Correctional Institution and you look at all
the things he's
00:04:02
done in the course of his
life, there's no question that you can say he's evil. NARRATOR: His unhinged behavior
makes him a deadly threat.
00:04:12
DR. LINA HAJI: His
propensity for violence was something innate,
was a predisposition,
00:04:19
something biological. I don't see Brady
stopping being violent at any point in time.
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[ominous music] NICK OCHSNER: He's
been diagnosed with a serious mental
illness that has largely
00:04:34
gone untreated,
and has gone on to do violent and dangerous things. NARRATOR: No one is safe
when he's on a mission.
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[ominous music] NICK OCHSNER: An attempted
escape like this doesn't happen overnight.
00:04:50
This can only be a thing that
happens after a lot of planning and coordination by Mikel Brady
and his three co-conspirators.
00:04:57
[tense music] HECTOR BRAVO: He proved that
he did not value human life and not willing to take just
one life, but up to four
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to fulfill his personal
gains and agenda. NICK OCHSNER: Brady
stands alone among people,
00:05:13
certainly in North
Carolina, who killed four prison workers,
injured two others,
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shot a state trooper to land
in prison in the first place. More than 100 robberies,
stole dynamite,
00:05:26
had bomb making equipment. That's a dangerous person. HECTOR BRAVO: He's like
the walking grim reaper.
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Nothing's going to stop him. [somber music] NARRATOR: Mikel Brady
was born in 1989
00:05:44
and raised in New England,
in the state of Vermont. NICK OCHSNER: Mikel Brady's
childhood seemed very normal.
00:05:51
Seemed like he had very
caring, supportive parents. He had a dad who
really believed
00:05:55
in the importance of education
and really wanted his children to excel at school.
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Mother also
supporting, working, trying to support the family. DR. LINA HAJI: He
seemingly had a rather
00:06:07
what we would consider
conventional childhood in the sense that
he had his mother
00:06:12
present, his father present. He had two siblings. There were no indications
of outward problems
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or risk factors. NARRATOR: Nothing seemed
out of the ordinary until Mikel Brady
turned 7, and began
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to say some worrying things. NICK OCHSNER: As a young
child in elementary school,
00:06:31
he was telling teachers that
he had suicidal thoughts. He actually started counseling.
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DR. LINA HAJI: As advanced
socially and as aware as a 7-year-old can be, there
really is no indication that
00:06:45
a 7-year-old should
understand what suicide is, or have thoughts of wanting
to end their life.
00:06:52
So the fact that Brady has
verbalized this to a teacher and is now required to attend
counseling is a big red flag.
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[somber music] NARRATOR: Three years
later, at the age of 10, he committed his
first act of violence
00:07:10
against his own sister. NICK OCHSNER: When
Mikel Brady was 10, he was playing with
his younger sister, who
00:07:16
was about two years
younger than him, and they were
playing a game that resulted in Mikel actually
stabbing his sister in the eye.
00:07:25
[ominous music] DR. LINA HAJI: Even children
who fight with their siblings usually do not go
to the length of stabbing
00:07:35
their sister in the eye. What causes a 10-year-old
child to engage in such an egregious violent
act, seemingly out of the blue.
00:07:47
NICK OCHSNER: Around
the same time, he was also being
diagnosed as bipolar. Brady reacted to this
pretty strongly.
00:07:55
He didn't always cooperate
with his treatment. He didn't always want
to take his medication,
00:07:59
even though he got access
to both of those things. DR. LINA HAJI: Another
factor of Brady's childhood
00:08:06
is that seemingly, his
mother did not discipline him or his siblings at all. And what that tells me is
that his act of violence
00:08:14
towards his sister
was more likely the product of a lack
of consequences and a lack of
00:08:21
learned behavior than it was
a direct result of a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
00:08:27
NARRATOR: Mikel
Brady continued to be raised in the family home. Two years later,
tragedy struck.
00:08:35
NICK OCHSNER:
In 2002, his dad was visiting his dad's
uncle in a nearby town was staying
overnight, and someone
00:08:44
broke into the uncle's house
and he killed Brady's father while he was asleep. He's stabbed to death.
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Brady returns to school
after his dad's death and his behavior problems worsen. He starts mouthing
off to teachers.
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He starts getting in fights. [tense music] DR. LINA HAJI: Maybe he didn't
know how to process that grief.
00:09:08
It's probably one of the most
fragile times in a child's development where
they really do
00:09:14
need their father
as a source of support, as a role model to guide them. It could have been acting out.
00:09:21
It could have been
a cry for attention. It could have been
his way of grieving. [somber music]
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NARRATOR: Mikel Brady quickly
descended into lawlessness when a year later,
he stole some fishing
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gear from a garage. [somber music] Desperate to help her
son, who was continuing
00:09:40
to spiral out of control. His mom sent him
to a mental health facility. NICK OCHSNER: He's
there for three weeks
00:09:49
and then is released,
but he doesn't go back home. He actually goes to foster care
because at this point, his mom,
00:09:56
she's working,
she has a job, but she's struggling financially. In fact, the family had
so little money one Christmas,
00:10:02
they couldn't even
afford a Christmas tree. DR. LINA HAJI: I think
that a lot of the times
00:10:08
we really underestimate
what chronic poverty can do to a child, especially
in terms of their development.
00:10:15
It could be negatively
affecting their social skills. It could be negatively
affecting their education.
00:10:21
When you add that to the risk
factors that Brady already had, now we're really looking
at kind of a perfect storm
00:10:28
for what the future holds. NARRATOR: At age
16, Mikel Brady was hit by another tragedy.
00:10:35
NICK OCHSNER: He's
in a car with some friends. They're making a stunt video. The car crashes.
00:10:41
The car is going more
than 100 miles an hour. Brady isn't badly injured, but
one person, one of his friends
00:10:50
in the car, dies. It's after this accident
that Brady then is diagnosed with PTSD and ADHD.
00:10:59
DR. LINA HAJI: He's
lost his father. He's been separated from
his family in foster care,
00:11:04
and now he's lost a friend. That's a lot of loss
for a 16-year-old to process. [suspenseful music]
00:11:12
NICK OCHSNER: Despite his
mental health diagnoses, despite the fact
that he's getting
00:11:15
treatment on medication,
when Brady turns 18, his insurance stops. And so he stops
taking his medication.
00:11:23
He stops getting treatment. [foreboding music] NARRATOR: As Mikel Brady
became a young adult,
00:11:31
his criminal activity took
a darker path, one of violence. NICK OCHSNER: In 2008,
Brady and three other people
00:11:40
break into a rock
Quarry and they steal 209 sticks of dynamite. He was actually planning
to give it to a drug dealer
00:11:48
in exchange for cocaine. [tense music] Flash forward to June
2009, Brady and another guy
00:11:56
break into a home
where a mother and son are inside the house. They violently throw
the mother up against a wall.
00:12:05
They chip her tooth. They also beat the son
with a baseball bat until he says he's going to go
get some money out of lock box.
00:12:14
He says he's going to go get
$600, but he doesn't do that. He actually calls 911.
00:12:21
And by the time Brady realizes
the police are en route, him and the other guy
get out of the house.
00:12:27
DR. LINA HAJI: Typically, a
burglary is a means to an end. You're taking something from
somebody because you desire
00:12:33
that object or that money. But Brady is going
above and beyond. This isn't just
a robbery anymore.
00:12:39
This is Brady escalating. NICK OCHSNER: Here you have
someone whose dad was killed
00:12:44
in a violent home invasion. Violently breaking
into people's homes and attacking them.
00:12:50
It's nuts. NARRATOR: After months
of investigating, police arrested Mikel Brady
for the home invasion.
00:12:59
[tense music] NICK OCHSNER: This is
where he confesses. He tells police
he's been involved
00:13:06
in more than 100 burglaries. This is when he cops
to stealing the 209 sticks of dynamite from the quarry.
00:13:15
It's rare for someone to go on
such a long crime spree in such a short amount of time.
00:13:21
[tense music] DR. LINA HAJI: Was he engaging
in these 100 burglaries while he was
experiencing mania?
00:13:29
Or was it simply
characterological in nature in the sense that he enjoyed
the high, he enjoyed the rush,
00:13:34
he liked committing
burglaries, and so he chose to continue to do so. NICK OCHSNER:
Police arrest Brady,
00:13:41
but he's released on bond. Instead of sticking
around, Brady flees to the Mexican border.
00:13:47
But he doesn't actually
make it to Mexico because he's stopped
by border police and he can't get into Mexico.
00:13:53
He's arrested again. NARRATOR: 21-year-old Mikel
Brady was convicted and sentenced to 28 months to 10
years for the dynamite theft,
00:14:03
and an additional 1 to 3
years for burglaries, including the home invasion. Brady was potentially
going to be spending up
00:14:12
to 13 years behind
bars, but he was released just 2.5 years later
after serving the minimum time
00:14:19
of his sentence. NICK OCHSNER: He
only spends a couple years in prison because he
is such a model prisoner.
00:14:26
He actually gets his
GED and he really commits to bettering himself. DR. LINA HAJI: There's
a big possibility
00:14:33
that he was still conducting
criminal activities in prison and he just wasn't caught.
00:14:39
Maybe he was using superficial
glib and charm to position himself as a model prisoner.
00:14:46
There might have been
some secondary gain in that, such as early release,
such as prison privileges.
00:14:52
I think he was putting
on a show for two years. NICK OCHSNER:
By the time he gets out,
00:14:56
he has a job waiting for him. He has the support
of his family. Things really seem
to be looking up.
00:15:03
NARRATOR: But it
wasn't long before he returned to his criminal ways. NICK OCHSNER: Things
outside of prison
00:15:10
don't go well for very
long in Mikel Brady's life, things start to crumble again.
00:15:15
Brady is charged but not
arrested for attempting to poach a deer out of season. He actually stops reporting
to his probation officer.
00:15:24
Authorities in Vermont don't
know where Mikel Brady is. [foreboding music] NARRATOR: Mikel Brady
stopped reporting
00:15:33
to his parole
officer in Vermont and moved 640 miles away
to Durham, North Carolina.
00:15:40
[foreboding music] He rented an apartment with
his pregnant girlfriend and attempted to remain
under the radar.
00:15:51
Four months later,
his violent behavior would eventually
catch up to him and make his presence
known to law enforcement.
00:15:59
[foreboding music] MICHAEL POTTS: My name
is Michael Potts. I was with the North Carolina
State Highway Patrol.
00:16:07
I was a third shift
interstate trooper. I primarily worked night time. [ambient music]
00:16:14
I like being out
in the nighttime, and my main focus was to ensure
safe, efficient transportation
00:16:19
on the highways. [ambient music] On a normal day
as a state trooper, you know, you encounter
seat belts and speeding.
00:16:27
NARRATOR: Michael
Potts had been a state trooper for 12 years. [ambient music] On the evening
of February 18, he
00:16:35
was in the middle of a shift. [ambient music] MICHAEL POTTS: I met up with
my partner that I worked with.
00:16:43
My partner said he wanted to go
to the east side of Durham. And I said, you know,
there's probably going
00:16:48
to be a car chase out of that. And, uh, he said,
well, I hope not. [ambient music]
00:16:56
Car chases were initiated
on that side of town a lot, but it was an area
known to us that we
00:17:03
could stop reckless drivers. [ambient music] NARRATOR: Trooper
Potts and his partner
00:17:15
separated to monitor different
sections of the NC98 Highway. He pulled into a used car lot.
00:17:25
MICHAEL POTTS: My unmarked
car would blend in with cars in the used car lot. No way I could get
a better look at traffic.
00:17:33
You can observe more, you know,
from people drinking, you beer going down the road
and/or no seat belts
00:17:40
or-- or things
of those matters. NARRATOR: Around 6:00 PM, he
spotted a driver passing by who
00:17:47
wasn't wearing a seat belt. [suspenseful music] MICHAEL POTTS: I
observed him come by
00:17:53
and a black Nissan
Altima, leaning up on the steering wheel. Clearly, he had
no seat belt on,
00:18:00
so I pulled out, got
behind him, went ahead and initiated my stop,
and once I exited the car,
00:18:11
got up to his vehicle. NARRATOR: That driver was
23-year-old, Mikel Brady. MICHAEL POTTS: I
printed the back
00:18:19
of the car, which
in law enforcement they're trained to do that. The oil from
your fingers, it'll put it
00:18:24
on the back of the taillight. So they were able
to tie me to the car. [tense music]
00:18:28
I get up there to the car. I said, I stop you
for a seat belt. I need your license
and your registration.
00:18:35
Clean cut kid seemed
to be well put together. [tense music] I knew he was real nervous.
00:18:43
I could see his heart
beat in his neck. I'm thinking he's fixing
to take off or exit the car
00:18:50
and, you know, fight
or something along those lines. NARRATOR: While
standing beside the car,
00:18:58
Trooper Potts was distracted
by the noise of a vehicle hitting the rumble strips.
00:19:04
He looked away. Brady took advantage
of the situation. MICHAEL POTTS: As I was
turning to look at that,
00:19:12
I saw him reach underneath his
right knee and he had a 380 underneath his knee. He spins in the seat
and by the time I look back,
00:19:24
the gun's in my face. It's a foot away. And then he just started
firing and I lost color vision,
00:19:32
and couldn't hear. [suspenseful music] NICK OCHSNER: Brady
fires four shots. Two of the shots hit
Trooper Potts in the face.
00:19:42
One shot hits Trooper
Potts in the shoulder, and one shot goes right through
both of Trooper Potts hands.
00:19:51
MICHAEL POTTS: Man fired
at from a foot away at 12-1300 foot per second. Now the shockwave
was coming out of it.
00:19:58
It was incredible. It felt as if I had like 10,000
pounds weights on my shoulder.
00:20:07
I was like, this is it. It's true what they say about
your life starts flashing.
00:20:12
Definitely something I've
never experienced before. [tense music] NARRATOR: Brady sped
off down the highway,
00:20:18
leaving Trooper Potts for dead. MICHAEL POTTS: I never
lost consciousness. I pulled my-- my weapon
out, but he was--
00:20:27
his vehicle was
too far away and I didn't want to fire because I
couldn't see in color,
00:20:35
which was very strange. So that was a big
distraction to me. And plus, I didn't want
to hit somebody else, when
00:20:42
he-- he was just too far away. NARRATOR: Trooper
Potts managed to drag himself back into his car.
00:20:49
MICHAEL POTTS: I thought
he just grazed me because there was
no pain associated with I had, but I'm like,
I can't see in color
00:20:55
and I don't know why. I looked up in the rear
view mirror just to see, which was probably the worst
thing for me to do,
00:21:03
because it had nicked
my carotid artery here and it was just spurting. That's when I realized I'm hurt
a lot, worse than I think I am.
00:21:14
That's when my-- my right ear
just started hurting so bad. I was like, I ain't experienced
no pain like that in my ear.
00:21:22
[ambient music] NARRATOR: He managed
to call in over the radio. Within three minutes, his
partner was by his side.
00:21:31
MICHAEL POTTS: He
grabbed some towels and he put it
over my face and-- and helped me out a lot.
00:21:35
But to my understanding,
fire and EMS got there. We were-- we were gone
in less than five minutes.
00:21:43
NARRATOR: Trooper
Potts was rushed to the hospital
in an ambulance, whilst Brady ended
up in the parking lot
00:21:49
of a restaurant 5 miles away. [tense music] NICK OCHSNER: He
abandons the car. He actually calls his
girlfriend, who's seven months
00:21:56
pregnant to come pick him up. But at this point,
troopers law enforcement have the vehicle information.
00:22:03
Trooper Potts
would have radioed that when he stopped the car. And so they find the car,
abandon it, in this parking
00:22:09
lot, and they search the car. [ominous music] NARRATOR: The police
discovered that the vehicle
00:22:16
was owned by one Mikel Brady
and obtained his address. The next morning, 12
hours after the near
00:22:25
fatal shooting on Potts. Brady was arrested in his
apartment, located just outside
00:22:30
of Durham in Brier Creek. [foreboding music] NICK OCHSNER: When police
searched Brady's apartment,
00:22:37
they find a large map
of Durham on the wall with the locations of police,
fire, and medic mapped out.
00:22:45
They also find
PVC pipe, and they find all the ingredients
that the FBI says could have made a bomb.
00:22:52
It's notable that we've
made a massive leap from charged with trying
to poach a deer in Vermont
00:22:58
to being in Durham,
North Carolina, with bomb making materials and
shooting at a state trooper.
00:23:04
[ominous music] NARRATOR: 23-year-old,
Mikel Brady was charged with assault
with a deadly
00:23:12
weapon with intent to kill. His case went to trial
in a courthouse in Durham, North Carolina.
00:23:20
NICK OCHSNER: He
actually pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 20
to 24 years in prison.
00:23:25
He was also sentenced to 40
years for having a gun. DR. LINA HAJI:
It's understandable
00:23:31
that Brady does not want
to return to prison by all means necessary, but the fact
that he can immediately
00:23:37
turn around and shoot a gun
at this trooper's face tells me he has absolutely
zero value for human life,
00:23:45
and he only cares
about himself. NICK OCHSNER: He
starts by stealing fishing gear in a garage.
00:23:52
He goes to stealing dynamite. He escalates to violent
home invasions, and then he ends up
shooting and trying
00:24:00
to kill a state trooper. [tense music] This is someone who's getting
increasingly more violent,
00:24:08
increasingly more dangerous. And it really leaves
open the question, is there anything
this man won't do
00:24:15
[foreboding music] NARRATOR: Thankful to be alive. Trooper Potts started on his
long journey of recovery.
00:24:24
MICHAEL POTTS: It took
a while for my jaw to heal up and-- and to get hearing back.
00:24:28
I was uh-- my right
side of my face, was paralyzed for seven months
and I couldn't blink my eye.
00:24:35
I'd have to take
my shot to go to sleep. Keep it from drying out. It was only with
the grace of God
00:24:42
that I was able
to survive that. I still had some
time left on Earth and I greatly appreciate it.
00:24:50
NICK OCHSNER: He
actually goes back to duty in April
of the following year, but ultimately, he takes
a medical retirement
00:24:56
because he's dealing
with PTSD and anxiety from what he went through. MICHAEL POTTS: I
look back on it,
00:25:02
it's the right choice,
right decision. It robbed me
of my dreams, you know. I wanted to retire from
the Highway Patrol.
00:25:08
You-- you have your retirement,
I've lost that. I didn't get that. [somber music]
00:25:19
NARRATOR: Mikel
Brady was sent to Pasquotank Correctional
Institution to carry out his sentence.
00:25:25
[foreboding music] HECTOR BRAVO: Pasquotank
Correctional Institution is located in eastern
North Carolina,
00:25:33
kind of far out of the way
from really anything. When you go to the prison,
it's basically
00:25:39
in the middle of this field. You can see it from
the highway driving by, and it's just this
big set of buildings
00:25:45
in the middle
of an otherwise pretty rural, desolate farmland. HECTOR BRAVO: One
of the problems
00:25:53
that Pasquotank had was
extreme staff shortages. The risk when it comes
to staffing shortages
00:25:58
are immense, the lack
of accountability, the lack of supervision. If there's less officers
to observe crime taking place,
00:26:07
then there's probably going
to be more crime taking place. NICK OCHSNER: There
was about a 25% vacancy
00:26:13
rate at Pasquotank CI in 2017. Living in this
prison is not great, but it's even worse
for the staff who's
00:26:22
asked to-- to do
the same amount of work with the same
amount of prisoners, but with less people
to help them, and
00:26:28
more importantly,
with kind of less backup when you're inside
these dangerous prisons.
00:26:33
[foreboding music] NARRATOR: Just as he had done
when he was last in prison, Brady behaved.
00:26:45
For three years, he
was a model prisoner, and with that came benefits. He was given a job.
00:26:53
NICK OCHSNER: Brady
worked at the sewing plant inside Pasquotank
Correctional Institution.
00:26:58
In North Carolina,
a lot of prisons have plants that
produce things, so some plants make
license plates.
00:27:05
This one made
upholstered items. A sewing plant,
they make furniture. Their inmates go and work
at these facilities.
00:27:15
HECTOR BRAVO: It's a good way
to occupy their time so they're not getting in trouble.
00:27:18
Also, it prepares them
to go back into society, and so they can have
the responsibilities
00:27:23
of waking up on time,
showing up on time, and bringing the proper
materials to a job site.
00:27:29
JAMIE MORGAN KANE: Inmates who
work all have access to tools to do the jobs they
have to do, whether it
00:27:35
be carving wood, drilling
wood, chisels, whatever. And the people that have
access to them, many of them do
00:27:43
have a violent past. Most of the inmates that
have had those tendencies, oftentimes will not
play out on them
00:27:52
unless there's
something they feel they have to do either
they're feeling threatened
00:27:56
or they feel disrespected. NICK OCHSNER: Brady had access
to things like claw hammers and
00:28:02
scissors, things that you would
use to make upholstery and work in a sewing
plant, but things
00:28:07
that you wouldn't necessarily
want to trust someone who's tried to kill a state trooper.
00:28:12
[tense music] DR. LINA HAJI: Typically,
inmates serving time with violent crimes don't tend
to get as many of the jobs
00:28:20
as inmates serving time
for nonviolent crimes. If he's willing to go
after a police officer,
00:28:26
a trooper out
in society, there's no reason why he wouldn't go
after a correction officer
00:28:31
in a correctional facility. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: While working
at the sewing plant,
00:28:38
Brady, now aged 28,
became acquainted with three other inmates. - Brady makes these friends,
Seth Frazier, Wisezah Buckman,
00:28:49
and Jonathan Monk. NARRATOR: Frazier had
been imprisoned on charges relating to burglary.
00:28:55
Buckman for murder, and Monk
for attempted murder. NICK OCHSNER: They
all have access
00:29:02
to tools that are really can be
dangerous weapons in the hands of violent people.
00:29:08
And together,
these four concoct a plan to escape Pasquotank
Correctional Institution.
00:29:14
[foreboding music] NARRATOR: At 2:43
PM, Brady and his co-conspirators decided to put
their escape plan into action.
00:29:29
Armed with claw hammers,
they made their first move. In the most savage
way imaginable.
00:29:37
NICK OCHSNER: Brady
and Seth Frazier are waiting near
a freight elevator, basically
into the sewing plant.
00:29:43
And that's where
Veronica Darden, she's an Enterprise Manager,
basically managing the sewing
00:29:47
plant, comes out
of the elevator and she's immediately
attacked by Frazier and Brady.
00:29:53
[ominous music] DR. LINA HAJI: He
seemingly attacks this civilian
employee in the prison
00:30:01
for no particular reason. Brady has really
shown that nobody is off limits at this point.
00:30:10
NARRATOR: After savagely
beating Veronica Darden to death, Mikel Brady handed a
claw hammer to Wisezah Buckman.
00:30:19
NICK OCHSNER: After Brady
passes the claw hammer to Buckman, he
goes and meets up
00:30:24
with another inmate,
Jonathan Monk, and together they
corner a corrections officer named, Justin
Smith, in the storeroom
00:30:32
here at this plant. They attack
the corrections officers, Justin Smith, until he's dead.
00:30:39
HECTOR BRAVO: Brady
and the other inmates made a fake radio
call on Justin's radio
00:30:43
to delay the response from
other correctional officers. He then set a fire. Lighting a fire with
very beneficial for Brady
00:30:53
because you're going to have
the smell of the smoke, the sight obstructed, the
sounds of the smoke detectors.
00:31:03
It creates a distraction
every measure. NICK OCHSNER:
The four men escape because it takes more
than 20 minutes for staff
00:31:12
to reach the sewing plant, to
give help to their colleagues that are under attack.
00:31:38
HECTOR BRAVO: It is
definitely not common for a 20 minute response time. There had to have been
some abnormalities,
00:31:45
weather barriers,
lack of communication, lack of experience. All of these things could
have accumulated to the 20
00:31:54
minute response time. [foreboding music] NARRATOR: After setting
the sewing plant fire.
00:32:04
Brady, Frazier,
Buckman, and Monk, traveled in the freight
elevator to the loading dock.
00:32:10
NICK OCHSNER: They run
into corrections officer Wendy Shannon and a maintenance
man, Geoffrey Howe.
00:32:16
They attack both
of those employees with a hammer and scissors. These employees were
stabbed dozens of times.
00:32:25
[foreboding music] NARRATOR: After assaulting
another officer. The four murderers ran
out into the prison yard.
00:32:34
They headed
for the perimeter fence. NICK OCHSNER: By this
point, backup's arriving.
00:32:39
There's a full
response going on. HECTOR BRAVO: These
correctional officers chased these four
inmates across the yard,
00:32:46
telling them to surrender. That's when Brady said, you're
going to have to kill me.
00:32:50
DR. LINA HAJI: I think he
was daring the officer. He was playing a game and he
wanted to be in control.
00:32:56
Brady is the type
of person that even when backed into a corner,
he's unwilling to face
00:33:01
the consequences
of his own actions. NICK OCHSNER: Another
correction officer takes out
00:33:05
his pepper spray
and used it, sprays it, and then he starts
hitting Jonathan Monk
00:33:10
in the leg with his baton. But Monk doesn't
give up, he actually starts attacking
the corrections officer,
00:33:16
gets stabbed three
times, but eventually, Monk is actually arrested. NARRATOR: Brady along
with Frazier and Buckman
00:33:26
made it to the fence. They attempted climbing over. NICK OCHSNER: Buckman gets
caught on the barbed wire.
00:33:33
The kind of razor wire
at the top of the fence, and is actually sprayed
with pepper spray
00:33:38
and is caught hanging upside
down on the barbed wire from the fence. NARRATOR: Brady and Frazier
were more successful.
00:33:46
- As they're going
over the fence. The staff sees them. They actually call
out to those guys.
00:33:50
Guys, you're not
going to go very far. They fire a warning shot
to try to get them to stop.
00:33:56
Frazier though, hears a warning
shot fired and decides to stop and turns around
and surrenders.
00:34:03
But ultimately, Brady
is able to escape. NARRATOR: Brady
was now on the run. NICK OCHSNER:
Pasquotank CI is kind
00:34:12
of in the middle of nowhere. At this point, the response
is just saturation. Law enforcement from all over
the area and all over the state
00:34:20
are descending on this prison,
they have vehicles now. Even though Brady
has made it out,
00:34:28
he's got to get through a field
and a big army of police before he could
actually be free.
00:34:35
NARRATOR: There's really
no way out for Mikel Brady. Now completely surrounded,
his options were limited.
00:34:43
[tense music] NICK OCHSNER: Brady is only
outside of the fence for 10, 15 minutes before
he turns around
00:34:51
and comes back through
the fence himself, and he surrenders. DR. LINA HAJI: Had Brady seen
an actual viable way to escape,
00:34:59
I think he would
have kept going. I think the only reason he
stopped is because he knew
00:35:05
this was the end of the road. He knew he was not
going to survive. He was going to get
caught either way.
00:35:10
[tense music] JAMIE MORGAN KANE: Trying
to escape from prison. I don't think it
necessarily takes guts.
00:35:18
I think it takes
a certain amount of being a bit of an adrenaline junkie. As someone who just wants
a little bit of excitement.
00:35:25
[tense music] Most don't have
a plan of what they're going to do when they got out.
00:35:32
I think it's more of either
a desperation thing, or just the idea they want
to try to prove they can.
00:35:42
HECTOR BRAVO: I
personally do not think Brady had a sound
plan for the escape attempt.
00:35:48
Reason being is all the brute
force, that he used the claw hammer, lighting a fire.
00:35:54
It didn't really seem thought
out, it seemed impulsive. [tense music] NARRATOR: At 3:30 PM, around
45 minutes after the incident
00:36:05
began, Brady was recaptured. He was interviewed
and confessed to everything. HECTOR BRAVO: He was going to
attempt to escape by any
00:36:33
means necessary. He proved that he's
willing to kill somebody in order to escape.
00:36:37
[foreboding music] NARRATOR: The murders
of four members of staff sent shock waves
throughout the prison.
00:36:58
NICK OCHSNER: It's
the enterprise sewing plant manager, Veronica
Darden, it's corrections
00:37:03
officers Justin Smith
and Wendy Shannon, and maintenance
worker Geoffrey Howe. If you're a maintenance
person, you don't have a baton,
00:37:14
you don't have maze, you're
not trained to be a corrections officer, but you still
show up every day
00:37:19
to this violent place, that's
dangerous by its nature. HECTOR BRAVO: The atmosphere
amongst the correctional
00:37:25
officers after
a major escape attempt like that will be very
somber, very eye-opening,
00:37:31
jaw-dropping, shocking. You're mourning the loss
of your coworkers. You're in shock about
what transpired,
00:37:41
and you're reminded
of where you work. NICK OCHSNER: This
is not normal. This is not what's
supposed to happen.
00:37:48
And it's only because they
launched a violent attack with access to weapons,
tools, that they were
00:37:55
using at the sewing plant. Families of those killed
in this violent escape attempt
00:38:00
were outraged. They really wondered
why these people had access to these tools
and weapons in the first place.
00:38:09
[somber music] HECTOR BRAVO: In all
of my experience in my career, I've never encountered
an escape attempt like that.
00:38:17
That is a very severe one,
considering all the loss of life, the security breaches,
and the amount of time
00:38:25
that all transpired in. NICK OCHSNER: When you
have violent offenders, weapons, and minimal
staffing, it
00:38:32
is a recipe for people to die. There was a ton of scrutiny
on how this happened.
00:38:39
There were a lot
of questions from lawmakers, from public
officials, and really there was outcry
from the public
00:38:46
how it could be so deadly. MICHAEL POTTS: I feel like
they saw an opportunity and knew they were all
short staffed, and said,
00:38:53
this is our day. We're going to do this. NICK OCHSNER:
The response took more than 20 minutes before
the first backup
00:39:01
reached the sewing plant. Now that's due in part to the
understaffing, it's due in part
00:39:05
to the diversion. It's due in part
to the fire, but you can't reach any
other conclusion
00:39:11
than the response was slow. [somber music] NARRATOR: Mikel Brady
and his co-conspirators
00:39:20
were all charged
with murder and transferred to Central Prison,
a maximum security penitentiary
00:39:27
near Raleigh, to await trial. Two years later,
in Dare County Court, 30-year-old Brady was
the first of the group
00:39:36
to be tried for all four
murders of the prison staff. MICHAEL POTTS: I went down
to testify on that as well.
00:39:46
It wasn't a good feeling being
back in the same room with him. There were security
all around him.
00:39:51
I believe, there was
like six of those guys that were with him
because of the risk of escape.
00:39:59
HECTOR BRAVO: Brady
was said to have looked quite pleased
for what he had done while he was on trial.
00:40:04
The only thing I
make of that is he may have been egotistical
and narcissistic, and he was probably happy
at the uproar and the chaos
00:40:15
that he caused. DR. LINA HAJI: This
is not somebody who's capable
of remorse, or empathy,
00:40:22
or taking accountability
for their actions. This is somebody
who wants attention
00:40:29
for all the wrong reasons
and is getting attention for all the wrong reasons. So this is exactly
where he wants to be.
00:40:38
[somber music] MICHAEL POTTS: It was very
hard at the court case to see the families out there.
00:40:45
And-- and that's when it
really sunk in for the survival guilt for me. If I could have done something
when that vehicle stopped,
00:40:55
then maybe nothing would
ever-- he would have never been in jail in the first place.
00:41:01
And those four people
would still be alive. NARRATOR: The jury
only took 35 minutes
00:41:07
to deliberate before they came
back with a guilty verdict. [suspenseful music] After just under
two weeks of trial.
00:41:18
He was sentenced to death. [foreboding music] HECTOR BRAVO: I think it was
appropriate for the evil act
00:41:25
that he committed,
and ultimately, he was judged by a jury
of his peers and sentenced in court
to be condemned.
00:41:34
MICHAEL POTTS: Well, I still
struggle with it to this day, thinking, why did this happen?
00:41:39
What could I have
done different? [foreboding music] There's nothing
that I could do.
00:41:47
You know, it's almost
like you don't even have uh-- you know,
a battlefield to fight on,
00:41:52
you know, it's just-- it's
just got to go with, you know, the hand that you're
dealt. And this is the one
00:41:58
that I'm dealt right now. But I'm getting along. [tense music] NARRATOR: Wisezah, Buckman,
and Jonathan Monk were
00:42:08
also given death sentences. Seth Frazier is yet
to be sentenced. Following the tragedy
at Pasquotank Correctional
00:42:18
Institution, new
measures were brought in to stop an event like this
from ever happening again.
00:42:24
NICK OCHSNER: The real
reason attributed for this deadly incident was
an overwhelming staff shortage.
00:42:30
And ultimately, what we
saw was a lot of change in safety procedures
implemented,
00:42:35
all aimed at making prisons
safer for the people working inside them. HECTOR BRAVO: The result of the
prison escape in Pasquotank was
00:42:44
advanced security measures,
some of which included putting body alarms on the correctional
staff members, uh,
00:42:51
reviewing of all 2,300 inmates
files for their job assignment. Also, the sewing plant was
issued to be shut down.
00:43:00
NARRATOR: Mikel
Brady is now being held at ADX Florence, Colorado,
a supermax prison, where
00:43:08
he awaits his death sentence. - I think Mikel
Brady wants to die. I think he wanted to die
the day that he escaped
00:43:14
Pasquotank CI, we
know that he was first expressing ideas
of suicide when he was a child back
in school, that
00:43:23
led to his bipolar diagnosis. As he's escaping the prison,
he told the staff, you have to kill me.
00:43:30
He's been sentenced
to death, but he's still very much alive
inside a maximum security prison.
00:43:36
I have to imagine if I'm
Mikel Brady today, I don't like life very much. HECTOR BRAVO: I am
in belief that Brady
00:43:44
did want to be shot while
he was attempting to escape. That would have just solved all
his problems then and there.
00:43:50
He would have been dead. Almost like suicide by cop. DR. LINA HAJI: His crimes
were so self-serving
00:43:56
and he displayed such
little remorse and such little appreciation
for human life.
00:44:03
Brady enjoys violence,
he gets off on violence, and he has,
for a very long time,
00:44:10
dating all the way
back to the age of 10 when he blinded his sister. Somebody like Brady
is probably going
00:44:17
to continue
to engage in violence as long as he's physically
capable of doing so.
00:44:23
[theme music]