NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Charges have been dismissed against a 67-year-old man accused of attacking six people, including nurses and a security guard, inside of a parking garage at Saint Thomas Midtown last month.
Online court records show the six assault charges against Larry Brown were dismissed nolle prosequi, which means the prosecutor will not pursue the charges.
Police responded around 6:15 a.m. on April 14 to a parking garage at Saint Thomas Midtown, located on 20th Avenue North at State Street, where they learned at least six people, all Saint Thomas staff members, had been attacked by a man on an elevator.
Officers said the suspect, identified as Brown, had received treatment at the hospital and was discharged, but refused to leave.
After being escorted off the property, police said Brown entered the garage and rode the elevator up and down, assaulting five female hospital employees, some of which were nurses, by punching them in the head.
A hospital security guard looking for Brown found him in a stairwell on the sixth floor of the parking garage, where police said Brown punched the guard in the head.
Brown was taken into custody on six counts of assault, but investigators said more victims later came forward and more charges were expected against him. It was not immediately clear if additional charges were ever filed in the case.
A letter from the Vanderbilt University Forensic Evaluation Team to Davidson County Judge John Aaron Holt obtained Monday by News 2 states a doctor interviewed Brown on April 28, two weeks after the attack, and determined he was “not competent” to stand trial.
Brown’s “competency deficits” are primarily due to a neurocognitive disorder that is “not likely to respond to treatment or improve with time,” according to the letter.
The Office of District Attorney, Glenn Funk told News 2 they cannot legally prosecute Brown because the U.S. Constitution prohibits the prosecution of an individual who does not have the mental capacity to understand their actions.
The 67-year-old has a lengthy criminal history, having been arrested more than 200 times since 1975, including multiple assault charges, according to police.
He was convicted in 2019 of assaulting a female health care provider after hitting a fire department medic, while being transported in an ambulance.
Brown was arrested again early Monday morning on a public intoxication charge, stemming from an alleged incident at the Cumberland Inn. Online court records show the charge was dismissed within about an hour.
