A man accused of fleeing the United States following a hit-and-run spent more than a decade living in Ireland as a fugitive before being arrested by US marshals in Washington last month.
Enda Browne (43) was first arrested and charged in 2015 for a hit-and-run in November 2014 in Reston, Virginia, a suburb close to Washington.
The incident involved a vehicle hitting and injuring a woman (37) who was crossing a road near a shopping centre with her teenage daughter, before the suspect fled the scene.
“The pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital,” Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) said in a press release last week, referring to the mother. “She was later downgraded to non-life-threatening injuries.” Her daughter was not injured.
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At the time, Browne was a barman at local Irish pub, O’Sullivans, according to a 2014 Reston Now report citing his LinkedIn profile. A 2015 Facebook post by the bar, subsequently rebranded Sully’s Pour House, described Browne as being from Co Mayo while inviting customers to watch Mayo take on Tyrone in Gaelic football.
Following the hit-and-run incident, Browne was arrested and spent the night in jail before being released on bond, according to an NBC Washington interview with Fairfax County Police Detective Christopher Elliott, who investigated the case.
“Browne was due in court on June 8th, 2015, but never showed,” Fairfax County Police said in a statement. “It was later learned he had fled the country.”
Federal authorities became involved and court records show that in September 2018 the US Marshals Service sought a federal criminal complaint alleging Browne had fled to avoid prosecution. The filing described him as a fugitive and requested an arrest warrant.
Having fled in 2015, Browne spent the next 11 years in Ireland, where court records show the Attorney General later sought his extradition in proceedings before the High Court here where he was represented by Cork firm Edmund J Burke & Company.
Browne’s case, first issued in May 2024, was listed repeatedly before Judge Marguerite Creedon until an extradition order was made last April. No written judgment has been published.
On June 26th, Fairfax detectives were notified that the US Marshals Service had Browne in custody at Dulles Airport, Washington. He was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, where he is being held without bond on the original felony hit-and-run charge, police said.
It is not clear whether Browne was extradited or went back to the US of his volition. Elliott suggested he may have decided to return because the extradition proceedings were “not going in his favour”.
Browne is being held without bond at Fairfax County Adult Detention Center in Virginia and his case is due to be heard on Wednesday.
