03/29/2023
Who started the fire at Taylor Brown’s apartment? Brown’s former roommate, Ashontis Davis, makes BOMBSHELL allegations claiming Brown started the fire. Davis chose to speak out after over a month because she saw Ms. Brown becoming the victim. Davis and two other women living there were homeless after the fire.
The plot thickens.
It was a chilly, rainy night on Wednesday, February 8th, 2023 at 208 Park Trail Road in Normal, IL. The duplex had four young women living there. By the next day, all four of them were homeless, and the home was unlivable because of a blazing inferno.
One of the women is Taylor Brown, who recently filed a Federal lawsuit against the Normal Police Department alleging she was falsely arrested, illegally had her phone seized from her, and was battered by Normal Police Officers the night of the fire.
In a now viral video, body cam footage shows Officer Serena Cunningham forcibly seize Brown’s cellphone. Cunningham did not have a warrant nor did she articulate any probable cause or exigent circumstances allowing her to legally seize the phone. Brown resisted, which led to multiple police officers attacking her and arresting her. She was arrested for Aggravated Battery of a Police officer and Resisting Arrest. She was released from the McLean County Detention Facility ten hours later with no charges, and her phone was given back to her. Many people instantly came to Brown’s defense regarding what appears to be an unlawful seizure and arrest.
At the same time: almost nothing is known about the fire that occurred the same night at Brown’s residence. The reason Brown was at the police station was to be interviewed about said fire, and Brown came down willingly.
The only thing the Town of Normal has said regarding the fire is this one Facebook Post.
However, one of Brown’s roommates has come forward to talk to Agitation Rising about the alleged events at her home which led up to the fire. Ashontis Davis says she lived at 208 Park Trail Road since 2021.
“I loved that place. I loved the landlord. The price was way below market,” Davis said.
Davis had to get new roommates for her four-bedroom house so she could afford to stay there. One was Ms. Brown, who moved in about one month prior to the fire. Two other women lived in the house. One did not wish to be named and declined an interview with Agitation Rising. She was not in town the night of the fire. The other has not returned requests by Agitation Rising for an interview. Since she has not consented to be named, she will be referred to as Zi to protect her privacy.
Agitation Rising has spoken with the property manager of the domicile who confirmed that all four women did live in the house as of February 8th, 2023. The manager did not wish to be named, and they declined to provide the estimated damages to the house.
Taylor Brown & Zi had been “friends” for years since high school at least. The friends is in quotes because, according to Ms. Davis, Brown was abusive & manipulative toward Zi, constantly putting her down. The drama began on the night in question over a planned trip to Puerto Rico involving Brown & Zi. The trip was planned for just a few days after the fire occurred. According to Davis, Zi no longer wished to go on the trip because she did not feel safe around Brown. In a conversation involving the three women, Zi explained to Brown her reasons for not going on the trip. The AirBnB they had scheduled was under Zi’s name, and she wanted to cancel the reservation because she did not trust Brown. According to Davis, Brown was furious with Zi for putting her vacation in jeopardy. Allegedly, Brown felt betrayed by her “best friend”, and began cussing Zi out.
The conversation got so heated that Zi retreated to her room: the very same room that hours later would be the site of an inferno, leaving the four roommates homeless. She locked the door behind her.
Ms. Davis claims she was attempting to be the peacemaker and resolve the situation between the two women. She said she tried to calm Taylor down, but calm she did not. Eventually, Davis went up to the second floor to speak with Zi one-on-one. The two-storied duplex contained three bedrooms and one bathroom on the second floor. Brown, Zi, and the unnamed roomate’s rooms were up there. Davis’ bedroom was downstairs in the basement.
Davis said she was sure a compromise could be reached and that this would all blow over. She didn’t think it would be a big deal, she said to Agitation Rising.
But, a big deal it became.
According to Davis, as she stood outside of Zi’s locked bedroom attempting to talk with Zi, Brown stormed up the stairs. Both women were outside Zi’s locked door attempting to talk with her. Davis says Brown was continuing to be threatening & aggressive towards Zi.
Zi agreed to let Davis in, opening the door for her, and locking it afterwards. Davis stated that Brown did not cease her vitriolic behavior. Brown questioned Zi’s intestinal fortitude for not speaking with her directly. Davis alleges within a minute of her being in the room, she could hear Brown attempting to break the lock on the door using a screwdriver. Davis opened the door, confronting Brown.
“Taylor, stop! You are doing too much,” Davis remembers saying.
Stop Taylor did not.
Davis alleges Brown continued to threaten Zi, stating Brown said she “would bust [Zi’s] head against the wall.” Davis remembers Brown saying, “If I didn’t have this love for you as my best friend, I’d have been hurt you.”
It was at this point Zi called the police, according to Davis.
Ashontis Davis realized her attempts at peacemaking had failed miserably. She attempted to retreat to her room and allow the police to handle the situation. However, according to Davis, Brown forced her way into Zi’s room, pushing Zi up against the wall. Zi grabbed a knife in self-defense. Davis says she ran in between them and forced Brown out of the room.
Then, there was a knock at the door.
Three Normal Police Officers responded around 9:50: Officer Kyley Hepler, Officer Ian Briggs, and Officer Diontue Armstrong. Davis let the police in. The police separated the three women and talked with each for about thirty minutes. Davis does not know what Zi told the police.
A heavily redacted incident report gives clues about what the police saw & did. Because all names were redacted, one can only assume who is who. All requests for body cam footage were denied by the Town of Normal.
Officer Hepler ran to the second floor after hearing yelling. Zi appears to have been on the ground next to her bed crying and still in possession of the knife. Officer Hepler had to grab Ms. Brown’s arm to prevent her from moving towards Zi. According to the report, he told Brown to go downstairs and speak with the officers there. He then got Zi to put down the knife. The officer noted in the incident report that Zi was not holding the knife in a threatening manner.
All three officers elected not to arrest anyone because of conflicting stories. For some reason, Zi agreed to leave the house for the night and stayed with a friend in Peoria. Officer Hepler noted in the incident report that Zi locked the door before she left in her vehicle.
The officers then left, leaving only Taylor Brown & Ashontis Davis in the home.
“In hindsight, I wished they had locked Taylor up,” Davis says.
They both retreated to their respective rooms.
Davis then began to talk with a friend over the FaceTime app, which includes a video view. Agitation Rising interviewed the friend under condition of anonymity. They stated they had been in Ms. Davis’ room before and that during the FaceTime conversation, Davis was in her room in the basement of the residence.
A fire alarm upstairs began wailing. Davis initially did not think anything perfidious was occurring. She stated the alarm is very sensitive and sometimes goes off simply because of steam from a hot shower. However, the alarm continued for much longer than normal, according to both Davis & her friend who could hear it over FaceTime.
Davis walked upstairs to investigate what shenanigans were about. She yelled out to Ms. Brown asking if she is okay. Brown responded with a “no.” Davis then walked up to the second floor only to discover a shocking scene. She said she saw Taylor Brown in Zi’s room (the same room that was locked when she left for Peoria, according to the police report). Davis says she saw two fires: one on Zi’s bed and one on a futon near the door of Zi’s room. Davis says Brown had a pot of water and was trying to put out the flames on Zi’s bed.
“Help me!” Brown yelled to Davis desperately.
Brown verified the above statement in direct messages with her other roommates.
w all my damn heart and im glad we got this out the way i’ll get my shit and be gone! fuck yall “conclusions” and detective nancy tryna put shit together asses.. I DUMPED THE BASKET AND GOT WATER AT FIRST MIND TO TRY TO MAKE THAT SHIT SMALLER AND YOU CAME UPSTAIRS. fuck you hoes cool cause i apologized for allowing [REDACTED] to move in! allowed and i didn’t know till after is crazy nor can i head that shit and me laughing hoe you don’t wtf i was laughing for so FAWK YOU! fuck you all actually. once I’m moved out fuck all y’all i just gotta emphasize that shit
Taylor Brown
Davis said she ran downstairs and collected several bottles of water. In retrospect, Davis said she was panicking and didn’t know what she was thinking by grabbing bottled water. She returned upstairs only to find Brown in the bathroom attempting to re-fill her pot.
Davis says the situation in Zi’s room had grown into a hellfire, engulfing the entire space. She asked Brown if she called the fire department, but Brown did not respond. Davis then hung up on her friend and called 911. Davis told Brown the fire is out of control, and they needed to leave. Davis ran outside, but Brown did not follow her.
According to Davis, she ran back up stairs and forced Brown to leave. Brown had closed the door (the door knob was still locked) to Zi’s room by this point. Both exited the house.
According to Davis, the aforementioned unnamed roommate had a pet rabbit. Davis then entered the house again to rescue the rabbit and brought it outside.
Upon walking out of the house for the final time—rabbit in tow—she looks Taylor Brown dead in her eyes and said, “You started that fucking fire.”
According to Davis, Brown told her to calm down, otherwise the police would think Davis was the responsible party, a statement which baffled Davis. Police and Fire Fighters arrived on the scene at 12:32 AM.
The damage to the house has made it unlivable. Every room either has water damage or smoke damage, as can be seen in these photos obtained from an anonymous source.
NPD officer Serena Cunningham escorted both women to her squad car to warm up. This is the same officer who hours later would forcibly take Taylor Brown’s cell phone away from her with no warrant. Davis believes Officer Cunningham was doing everything she could to make them as comfortable as possible after such a traumatic event.
While in the police vehicle, Davis states that Brown was on the phone with her mother, who is a Chicago Police Detective. Davis believes Brown was trying to create a narrative that somehow the inferno was started by an extension cord that Zi allegedly left on her bed. Davis further alleges that Brown kept mentioning what she believed to be multiple fire hazards in Zi’s room.
Davis alleges that in the police vehicle, Brown admitted to forcing her way into Zi’s locked room after Zi left. Zi and Brown apparently shared clothing, and, according to Davis, Brown felt that it was the perfect time to break into her “best friend’s” room to return the items. Davis says Brown admitted to putting clothes on the very same bed that would later be devoured in flames.
Furthermore, Davis alleges that Brown admitted to putting one of Zi’s candles in Zi’s room. Davis says the candle was a gift to Zi, and Zi never burned it using it only as a decoration. Davis was adamant that Zi’s candle had always been on a small wooden table outside of Zi’s room.
Brown verified the above statement regarding the candle in direct messages with her other roommates.
i moved [REDACTED] candle to HER room which we all knew was in the hallway
Taylor Brown
Davis expressed extreme skepticism to the extension cord hypothesis. She further told Brown she did not wish to speak to her any longer until after she had spoken with police.
Davis was removed from the car and spoke to the fire investigator. She said she told the investigator the exact same story she gave to Agitation Rising. She and Brown both voluntarily went down to the Normal Police Station in separate vehicles.
Davis said she spoke with a detective whose name she did not remember. She told the detective the exact same story she told the fire investigator and Agitation Rising. Davis says she was never asked to give her phone over by detectives. She also did not see or hear the arrest of Taylor Brown the same night.
In the now viral video of Brown’s arrest, you can hear Brown asking Officer Cunningham if Davis had to turn over her cellphone. Cunningham said yes, but the police are allowed to legally lie.
Davis says Officer Cunningham gave her a ride to a friend’s house to spend the night.
The next day, Davis was allowed by the Normal Fire Department to obtain some items. However, Brown, her Chicago Police Detective mother, and a male were also at the house collecting things. Davis says she was upset that NPD officers allowed them to both be present at the same time.
Within a few days, Brown did in fact go on her trip to Puerto Rico. In a Tik Toc video under the handle thefemalefuturelol posted on March 2nd, 2023 (presumably after she returned from the U.S. island territory), Brown blames an unnamed person for canceling their AirBnB. Brown had to pay for one on her own. It says:
nah girl we not cool you stole $500 from me, told your bf my business, cancelled on a trip planned for 3 months 5 DAYS BEFORE, cancelled the air bnb leaving me w nowhere to stay when I went making me get w WHOLE new air bnb, lied about the situation for sympathy from people you talked about, had s3x w your “soulmate” homie 3 times after saying he “forced” you the first time costing them their friendship, lost my airpods and said it’s not your fault, pulled a kn!fe on me cause I was yelling at you because you was supposed to be me friend doing all this to me, called the police on me and STILL don’t think you wrong cause you “depressed”
Taylor Brown
Meanwhile, the other three women were homeless. Ashontis Davis said she was homeless for several weeks before she found temporary housing. She said she generally has very little spare money. Davis attends Illinois State University. She says the University attempted to help her after the fire. Davis said the stress of the situation forced her to drop most of her classes for this semester. She hopes to make up the classes over the summer. “I just gave up this semester.”
Davis has not received any other follow-up from either NFD or NPD.
“I don’t know why she hasn’t be arrested yet,” Davis said.
When asked what she thought of the body cam footage released last week by Agitation Rising, Davis said she cried.
“Honestly, no shade to you; I was kinda pissed. I was upset. I had just gotten off of work, and someone sent me the video as I was driving. I pulled over the car, and I was balling. I was not crying because Taylor was in that situation. I was crying about the fact that she’s about to sue the Normal Police Department. She’s going after this cop [Officer Cunningham] who I truly believe was just doing her job. And, she’s literally becoming the victim in all this.”
Davis chose to speak out after over a month because she saw Ms. Brown becoming the victim. Davis says the real victim is Zi. “[Zi] is the sweetest girl. She is super sweet. Non-confrontational. I’ve never once witnessed her be aggressive.”
On the other hand, Davis describes Ms. Brown as a narcissist. “The way she acted in that video triggered me, because that’s the way she acts on a day-to-day basis.”
“I can’t sit here and say what she went through at the police station wasn’t traumatic. I can’t say that at all. The only thing I can speak on is the fire. I don’t know the rules on seizing a phone so I can’t speak about the arrest.”
Whether these allegations are true or not has no bearing on whether Brown’s phone was illegally seized and she was illegally arrested. Both allegations can be true at the same time. Brown has fourth, fifth, and sixth amendment rights regardless of what actions she allegedly committed. The fact Brown was later released from jail with no charges lends credence that the seizure and arrest were unlawful. As previously reported, the action to seize Brown’s phone was likely an attempt to coerce Brown into providing an interview with the detective without an attorney present.
The Town of Normal has refused to comment. Normal Police Chief Petrilli did not return a request for comment. The State’s Attorneys office also did not return a request for comment. Brown’s attorney, Abby Bakos, has also not returned follow-up calls from Agitation Rising.
Taylor Brown’s lawsuit alleges that NPD “attempted to obtain a search warrant to search Ms. Brown’s cell phone, but the warrant was not approved by the State’s Attorney.” In a previous interview with Ms. Bakos, she confirmed to Agitation Rising that this information came from Brown’s mother, a Chicago Police Detective, who contacted the State’s Attorney while Brown was still incarcerated.
Taylor Brown has not been charged with any crime as of the publication of this article. Should she be charged, she is innocent until proven guilty. The Town of Normal has refused to release any information regarding the fire stating it is an ongoing investigation and release of information could jeopardize said investigation. The Town of Normal has not publicly named Taylor Brown as a suspect in any investigation.
Why no update? The fire chief concluded that the fire started in a unit that was being renovated. It’s a public report.
Where is it? Send it to me agitationrising@gmail.com.
Where is this public record at? I have contacted the Normal Fire Dept and they wont release any records saying it’s “still under investigation” Please send us links or provide screen shots of this record.
I hope she wins her civil suit against the police.
Kudos on such a well-written piece!
Update is the nasty attitude b*tch is under arrest for arson you know nothing libitards. That’s why she didn’t want to give up her phone. The police have the right to seize the phone to preserve evidence until a search warrant is obtained. And will return it when it’s searched or one isn’t granted. They asked several times nicely. Then ordered her and she became combative. You get what you get at that point. She’ll lose the lawsuit and go to jail for burning the place.
Link? Cause Google ain’t showing that.
This doesn’t make sense. There was a fire going on, and she had time to text? Additionally, she willfully incriminated herself and doing the crime in the text message… While a fire is ongoing?
People need to read between the lines and realize that this is junk.
None of this matters in regard to the false arrest of Taylor Brown. Due process is required for the seizure of her phone & person. Remember, the Bill of Rights protects both the innocent & the guilty. Taylor Brown’s rights were disgustingly violated by the police. If she IS guilty, the false arrest will completely undermine any future prosecution, civil or criminal.
Police are legally allowed to take personal property without a warrant if there is a chance evidence is on it and that it could be lost if not taken. After they take said evidence they then have 24-48 hours to get a warrant to search whatever it is they took. They can not search it before they get the warrant but can hold it in evidence. Then if the warrant is denied like it was it is returned to the person. The police were legally allowed to do what they did and she did resist and batter the cop. The only reason she wasn’t charged at that time is because they are putting all the evidence together to charge her all at once. Her rights weren’t violated. Her roommate told in an interview that she opened the locked door and was seen running out of the room that was not hers while it was on fire. In another article in June 3 months after this 1 it says Taylor has been charged with arson and some other things. I’m sure with the testimony of her 3 roommate that hate her and that she made homeless she will be convicted of this arson and the other crimes and her civil rights lawsuit will be thrown out and she will get a nice long prison sentence. And her asshole cop mom should have never been allowed in the crime scene alone without police. Nobody should but her mom is the 1 who knows how to destroy evidence.
What article claims she was charged with arson?
The WGLT . org posted it was a new prosecutor assigned to the case in Springfield.
It says her investigation is being investigated by a new prosecutor in Springfield.
it says a Prosecutor has been assigned to her case in Springfield.