
Incident occurred at or near the Somers Commons shopping center on the Westchester-Putnam County Border
By Dan Murphy
A Mahopac was arrested on two occasions by Yorktown Police over a two-week period in February for weapons charges stemming from a road rage incident.
On Feb. 11, Yorktown Police responded to a call from the NYS Police about a road rage incident in Somers near the Putnam County border on Route 6.
Upon arrival, Yorktown Police determined that James Brown, 59, of Mahopac was involved in a traffic dispute on Route 6 when he allegedly pointed a gun at the other man and used a racial epithet. Both individuals were found in the area of Somers Commons off Route 100.
Police later found a firearm matching the victim’s description in Brown’s possession. Brown was taken into custody and transported to the Yorktown Police Department. He was charged with second-degree menacing as a hate crime, a felony.
Brown was arraigned and released in Yorktown Justice Court, which issued a temporary order of protection for the victim.
Brown agreed to turn in his weapons to Yorktown Police, which he did on Feb. 11. However, according to the 2nd YPD report. “On 02/11/2025 at 2215 hours the defendant arrived at the Yorktown Police Department to surrender firearms pursuant to a previous court order. While YPD members were inventorying the firearms, a small plastic container with unknown pills inside, was located in one of the firearm cases.
“An investigation was conducted on the pills and determined them to be a schedule 4 controlled substance-allegedly possessed by the defendant. The defendant was advised to return to YPD Headquarters to be processed for this charge.
“On 02/25/2025 at 4:46 PM the defendant voluntarily surrendered to Yorktown Police at their Headquarters and was subsequently processed for Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 7th, a Class A Misdemeanor.
We FOIL’d the police reports concerning both incidents but were denied based on an ongoing police investigation. We would like to speak to the victim of the first incident (road rage) to find out what happened. But that person cannot be identified without the police report.
Anyone with information can email us at dmurphy@risingmediagroup.com
Schedule 4-Controlled substances include Ambien, Valium and Xanax.