A man stabbed and ran over his estranged wife and two medical professionals before eventually killing his two young children and himself following a domestic-related rampage overnight in Seminole County, deputies said.

The incident began around 10 p.m. at a Chili's along Lake Mary Boulevard.

Police say Chericia Brown, 31, was attacked and seriously injured by her estranged husband, 30-year-old Henry Romone Brown III, in the parking lot of the restaurant.

Deputies said Henry Brown waited in the trunk of Chericia's vehicle for her to come out of the restaurant and then stabbed her. He left the scene and returned moments later in his vehicle and ran over her, as well as two medical professionals who were rendering aid to Chericia Brown.

Chericia Brown was transported to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, where she later died.

Deputies said Henry Brown fled the scene and went back to an apartment complex in Altamonte Springs, where he changed vehicles and picked up the couple's biological children, a 4-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl, from a babysitter.

At about 12:25 a.m., Henry Brown arrived at Central Florida Regional Hospital in an attempt to locate Chericia, deputies said.

Seminole County deputies and Sanford Police confronted him. Brown and law enforcement officers exchanged gunfire inside the hospital, but no one was injured, deputies said.

Brown fled the hospital and got onto I-4, where he was located by deputies within minutes. Deputies were able to stop the vehicle with stop sticks.

When the vehicle slowed to a stop, deputies found Henry Brown and both children dead inside. Investigators believe Brown killed his children at some point after picking them up and then he committed suicide in his vehicle as law enforcement officers prepared to apprehend him.

The children's names are Henry and Aleah.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the officer-involved shooting that occurred at the hospital.

One of the medical professionals who rendered aid to Chericia Brown remains in the hospital. The other person was released.

— Digital Media Producer Andrew O'Brien contributed to this report.


Henry Brown, 30. (Orange County Corrections)

Babysitter: It just didn't seem right

Lauren Camarillo was left with an unsettling feeling, after Henry Brown rushed to pick up his two children from her apartment.

“I just got like, a chill. It just didn’t seem right,” she said.

Camarillo was Brown’s neighbor and had only watched the children briefly once before. But, the woman was likely the last person who saw the kids alive.

“Their last meal was corn dogs and ketchup and grape Capri Sun,” she said tearfully.

With her sister by her side and visible shaken up, Camarillo recounted Sunday night when Brown pounded on her door.

“I could tell he had a lot going on in his mind, but I just thought it was because of the accident,” she said.

Brown said his wife was in a car crash on Semoran Boulevard/SR 436. He had to go help her -- and needed Camarillo to watch the two kids.

“I just wanted to keep them calm, put Disney Channel on, made them corn dogs. The little girl was adorable. They were jumping around, they were dancing,” she said.

Camarillo’s mom even snapped a happy photo of her daughter, smiling with the two children in the kitchen. But, the woman said after an hour and a half, Brown returned and was acting different.

“Just nervous, shaky, like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’” she said. “He almost forgot the diaper bag.”

And with helicopters flying overhead, Camarillo said she had a sickening feeling. She only thought she was doing a favor for her neighbor.

“I thought I was helping him,” she said. “I thought I was helping him, helping the children.”

Domestic violence was reported in December 2015

According to court records, Chericia Brown told authorities that she thought her husband was capable of killing and had even threatened to harm her and her children. Yet investigators said they did not have enough evidence to prosecute.

Months before the incident overnight, Altamonte Springs Police responded to a domestic violence call at the Crescent Place Condos complex.

On December 18, 2015, Chericia Brown told the officer that her unemployed husband, Henry Brown, threatened to kill her and their two small children, Aleah and Henry.

The victim said he threw a phone at her, flipped a mattress while she was on it, pulled her hair and held her against a closet wall.

Chericia also told investigators Henry tried to stuff a sock in her mouth, while he pinned his knee on her head and backhanded her five times. She said all of this happened in front of their one-year-old daughter.

But the responding officer said he didn’t have enough evidence to make an arrest at the time and said since the victim was leaving the home, “the fear of further violence (did) not exist.”

The investigation was passed along to the State Attorney’s Office and the next day, Henry was questioned by authorities about the battery allegations.   

He denied the accusations and told authorities his wife was trying to get back at him for having an affair.

At the same time, Chericia requested an injunction to keep him away from her, their children and her workplace.

An initial, temporary injunction granted Henry Brown 50/50 custody of the couple's children. But a permanent injunction gave Cherisia 100 percent of the time-sharing, sole discretion as to whether the father would be allowed to see the children.

Chief Judge John D. Galluzzo issued a statement clarifying the courts' role in the custody case:

Certain news accounts involving the homicide of Chericia Brown and her two children may have inadvertently misrepresented the facts of this case by broadcasting an interview with a local advocate for abused women.

In a televised interview, the advocate alleged that the Judge granted 50/50 time-sharing of the children to the father. In fact, this Judge actually granted 100% of the time-sharing to the mother, giving her sole discretion to allow contact with the father as she saw fit.

In the aftermath of tragic events, it is human nature to want to assign blame. However, the Judge assigned to this case did exactly what she was authorized to do under current law. She ruled timely and appropriately for the victim.

The advocate who suggested something more could be done apparently did not read the order, watch the video, or attend the hearing. Perhaps if she had, she would not have suggested that the Court could somehow be at fault in this tragedy.

In this instance, the Judge did everything in her power to enjoin Mr. Brown from having contact with his spouse and yet he did. These deaths are tragedies that a piece of paper could not prevent. Increased public awareness and more funding for facilities, such as Safe House, would go a long way towards preventing the horrible fate that Ms. Brown and her children suffered. However, suggesting that judges are somehow to blame for the tragedy is unfortunate and misplaced.

Fifty-four days after the permanent injunction went into effect, Chericia received a letter from the State Attorney’s Office that said her husband would not be facing any charges because of a lack of evidence.

In domestic violence cases where children are present, it is common for the Department of Children and Families to get involved.

However, in this case, they did not.

That’s because the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office has its own Child Protective Services unit.

We reached out to that unit for details on any findings regarding this family. We were denied an interview and are still waiting on requested documents.  

Victim advocates: More needs to be done to stop cases like this one

In 2014, FDLE said more than 100,000 crimes of domestic violence were reported in Florida.

Some 2,000 of those cases came from Seminole County alone.

Local victim advocates believe more can be done to keep these cases from falling through the cracks.

“Sometimes it’s manipulation, feeling imprisoned even internally,” said mental health therapist Christy Jordan. “Like you can’t leave for some reason. You’re not allowed to do certain things.”

The Altamonte Springs Police Department investigated Chericia Brown’s claims of abuse by her husband, Henry Brown. Police said her injuries were not consistent with those statements. No charges were filed against Brown.

“I think one of the biggest things is when a victim gets hit, the bruising doesn’t show up till a day or two afterwards,” said victim advocate Dawn Streeter. “So the victims at this department, when we deal with the victims at this department, we tell them if bruises show up, come back so we can take more pictures.”

Safe House is a local nonprofit dedicated to ending domestic violence in Seminole County.

For privacy reasons, the organization could not tell us whether Chericia was getting help at this battered women's shelter.  They did say she filed an injunction and was referred to Safe House. After that, Henry was prohibited from contacting his wife, but was still granted 50/50 custody of their children.

“I am questioning why the heck he got 50/50 child custody,” said Safe House CEO Jeanne Gold. “Why does he have these children without supervision when Seminole County has it in place where he can actually visit with his children at a supervised visitation center.”

Gold believes more cases like these could be prevented if judges were better trained to deal with domestic violence cases.


The incident began with a stabbing at a Chili's located off Lake Mary Boulevard. (Jason Hughes, Staff)

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify the terms of the injunction granting custody of the children between Cherisia and Henry Brown. A previous version stated that Henry Brown was granted 50/50 custody; that was in the initial temporary injunction filed by Cherisia Brown. But a permanent injunction granted Cherisia Brown 100 percent of the time-sharing, which gave her sole discretion as to whether the children's father would be allowed to see the children. The clarification also adds a statement from the chief judge.