Breiana Tole
A woman has been charged with a felony for allegedly helping a man who shot and killed a deputy during a traffic stop on Friday try to escape, deputies said.
Breiana Elizabeth Tole, 27, faces a felony count of accessory after the fact for having the back of murder suspect Patrick McDowell.
The charge stems from a tragic traffic stop. Nassau County Deputy Josh Moyers pulled over a minivan that McDowell was driving, but McDowell fatally shot him in the face and then the back. This sparked a manhunt for the U.S. Marine veteran and former security guard, who also allegedly shot a K-9 named Chaos. Moyers died on Sunday at a hospital, authorities said.
Patrick McDowell, and Deputy Josh Moyers.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, McDowell messaged Tole from a new Facebook account.
“Accept the friend request I sent and call me and please don’t tell,” he allegedly wrote, telling her he was in bad shape because he was shot.
“It’s not looking good,” he allegedly said. “I need u more now than ive [sic] ever needed another living soul. I don’t beg, but I will be honest with you, without your help, I’m either gonna die out here from the wounds or they will kill me.”
Tole allegedly promised help.
“I won’t say anything to anyone,” she wrote, according to Nassau County deputies. “You have my word. I swear. I don’t trust the air around me, enough to gamble with your life. Let alone any person. Just tell me what to do. Where to go. When to be wherever. What arrangement to make.”
McDowell allegedly wrote an hour later that he was going to tell her where to be, and he gave her a latitude and longitude. He told her to park at that precise spot, and he would be close enough to see her, police say. Tole allegedly answered, saying she would leave in five minutes, but McDowell told her not to arrive until 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
Authorities said they found Tole driving while they were doing surveillance near the location McDowell gave. They claim she turned around on spotting sheriff’s office patrol units, but they stopped her and detained her for questioning after she tried to speed away. During a post-Miranda interview, she allegedly admitted to trying to help McDowell.
“I know he did something wrong,” she said.
Deputies said they caught McDowell on Tuesday. Court records show that Tole received a provisional order for a public defender.
[Booking photo of Tole and images of McDowell and Moyers via Nassau County Sheriff’s Office]
