ROANOKE, Va. – The search for Michael Brown ended back where it started in Franklin County Wednesday morning, but neighbors on a Roanoke street will never forget the intense search that took over their neighborhood two weeks before his capture.
Roanoke police searched for Brown on Tillett Road on Nov. 14, after they received a tip that he was seen knocking on his grandmother’s window on Tillett Road.
The search on Tillett Road, which later involved the FBI and a SWAT team, shut down Roanoke City Schools for the day. Police asked neighbors to stay inside their homes.
“I’m feeling relieved, very relieved,” said Maggie Oliveri, who lives a block away from Brown’s grandmother’s house. “I hesitated to go out for my walks in the evening. There’s a caution in the neighborhood that I have never seen before.”
After Brown was arrested in Franklin County, Oliveri said she’s glad he was found far away from her neighborhood.
“Everybody kept saying, he wouldn’t stay around here with all of the police presence, but I think people [on Tillett Road] were split about 50/50. Some people were pretty convinced he was still here," Oliveri said. “Now that he’s been caught elsewhere, that gives me a sense of peace.”
However, Oliveri said the two weeks of tension may make it hard for her and her neighbors on Tillett Road to find peace, even after Brown’s capture.
“You’re still looking out the window a little more, looking out the front door a little more," Oliveri said. “Before this, you would see people constantly out walking their dogs and doing things out in the evening. After that happened, I am sometimes the only person out walking in the evening if I walk. There’s nobody out. Not even the men. Nobody.”
The morning of Brown’s arrest, Brown’s mother and grandmother were in the house on Tillett Road where the Nov. 14 search happened. Both of them denied comment to 10 News about Brown’s arrest.