Traffic stop and unsolved murder draw FBI to Madison County

Via Jeffery

One deputy was suspicious from the start.

Sgt. Chad Brooks -- who leapt upon the bleeding and thrashing man, only to take a kick to the gut -- would later write that in 14 years he'd never seen anyone resist with such ferocity.

"He was making growling noises and screaming uncontrollably despite no one actively restraining him," wrote Brooks of that night in August of 2012, of his arrival at the dark roadside near the Tennessee line.

There were already a handful of deputies there. Brooks writes Deputy Justin Watson looked exhausted and had blood on his shirt. Watson assured Brooks -- his boss on the third shift -- that the blood came from the man lying in the ditch.

Brooks approached the suspect. But the man had been playing possum. He rolled onto his side and put a boot in Brooks' stomach. Then the man, still in handcuffs, tried to stand up. Brooks tackled him to the ground. They struggled. More deputies piled on.

While lying across the man to keep him still, Brooks noticed the bruises and the blood on the man's face. His teeth had been knocked out.

The man's name, he would later learn, was Robert Bryant.

More @ AL

This story will be told in seven pieces over the course of the week, with a new installment at 8 a.m. every day. This is Part 1.