Charges: Man led police on multi-city pursuit in stolen Metro Mobility bus
A Minneapolis man is accused of stealing a Metro Mobility bus and leading police on an hours-long pursuit that spanned several cities.
Brandon Scott Brose, 31, is charged in Ramsey County District Court with vehicle theft and fleeing a peace officer in a vehicle.
Brose is accused of stealing a Metro Mobility bus in St. Paul in the early morning hours of Jan. 20. The bus was left with the keys inside while the driver grabbed something from her personal vehicle, the charges state.
He is also being investigated in connection to two other recent Metro Mobility bus thefts, court documents allege.
The charges
According to the criminal complaint:
Metro Transit police responded to a report of a stolen bus at the First Transit Building, 1 Ridder Circle, in St. Paul at 4:21 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20.
The bus driver said at about 3:56 a.m. she got the Metro Mobility bus and started it up. She drove it to her personal vehicle to grab something and left the bus unattended with the keys inside, at which point it was stolen.
Investigators tracked the bus via GPS. The thief, later identified as Brose, drove it through several cities, including St. Paul, Mahtomedi, Woodbury, White Bear Township, White Bear Lake, and Roseville.
Authorities several times tried to stop the bus, but each time Brose fled.
At about 9:15 a.m. on Jan. 20, Ramsey County sheriff's deputies were called and followed the bus from Roseville into St. Paul. Brose during this time ignored stop signs and violated traffic laws. During the pursuit, deputies lost sight of the bus in an alley, but eventually found it unoccupied at 811 Edmund Ave. W in St. Paul.
A deputy spotted a man, later identified as Brose — his pants were covered in snow and there were leaves on his jacket. When the deputy spoke to Brose, he was "very nervous and evasive" of the deputy's questions.
On Brose, police recovered a syringe and glass bubble that's typically used to smoke meth.
Brose was seen on bus surveillance video covering the camera with shaving foam at 4:28 a.m. And a postal worker who saw Brose on the bus prior to him abandoning it confirmed he was the driver.
Brose is currently on probation on auto theft charges after pleading guilty in 2020, court documents state. He also had three warrants out for his arrest after failing to appear in court in connection to charges related to burglary and auto theft in 2020 and 2021.
He was in court on Monday, where his bail was set at $15,000. Brose is scheduled to appear in court again at 2 p.m. on Feb. 7 for an omnibus hearing on the charges related to the Jan. 20 incident, as well as his previous burglary and auto theft charges, court records show.
Brose has no permanent address listed in court records.
