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Killer of Garden Grove police officer found unresponsive on Death Row, later dies

by in News

A condemned inmate who was convicted of killing Garden Grove Police Department Officer Donald F. Reed was found unresponsive and died in his cell at San Quentin State Prison on Sunday evening, officials said Monday.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a press release on Monday that John George Brown, 71, was attended to by medical staff at the prison after he was found unresponsive at around 6:15 p.m.

  • Flowers adorn the Garden Grove Police Memorial. They were placed there on June 7, 2005, marking the 25th anniversary of the death of Garden Grove police officer Donald Reed.
    (Photo by Bruce Chambers, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • An undated photo of Garden Grove police Officer Donald Reed, murdered in 1980 by John George Brown, AKA Gordon Lee Mink.

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  • John George Brown was sentenced to death in 1982 for the killing of Garden Grove police officer Donald F. Reed. He appeared in Orange County Superior court on Monday, January 3, 2000, for his new trial. Brown’s murder conviction had been thrown out by the state Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision. He was convicted again in the retrial. Witnesses said Brown emptied a .22-caliber handgun inside the Cripple Creek Saloon in Garden Grove, killing Reed and wounding two other officers.
    (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • John George Brown is seen in a 2007 photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

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Brown was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. He had been on death row since June 17, 1982, officials said.

Reed, 27, was shot and killed by Brown after he and two other officers attempted to serve Brown a felony arrest warrant in 1980, officials said.

Brown was convicted of first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, and was sentenced to death in Orange County on June 11, 1982.

During a memorial service in 2011, retired Detective Jack Brown recalled how Reed had infectious energy that never seemed to flag.

“He said he’d had so much fun from working one night, that he was going to have trouble getting to sleep when he got home,” said Brown about a late-night shift, “I was always grateful for his camaraderie.”

In honor of Reed, the city of Garden Grove named a street after him: Donald Reed Lane.