The FBI’s news release didn’t mention that one of the men, Brian Summerson, has repeatedly been accused of committing similar crimes. In one case from January 2020, a woman told deputies in North Carolina she’d been kidnapped and escaped from Summerson’s truck while he was asleep. Deputies found her story inconsistent and Summerson wasn’t arrested.
Later that month, deputies in South Carolina found a screaming woman in Summerson’s truck, according to records. He was charged federally and freed on bond, only to face two new allegations in other states in the following months that he had choked women.
In a search for more victims, the Memphis branch of the FBI reached out to the public earlier this month for information about two long-haul truckers accused of an interstate scheme to kidnap women and hold them for ransom.
Summerson coordinated with Pierre Washington, according to a later indictment filed in Memphis, to figure out ways to make money off the women, trying to persuade them to work as prostitutes or contacting their families to demand ransom to let them go.
Now 26, Summerson stands 6’2 and weighs 256 pounds, according to one law enforcement report. He is from Dillon, South Carolina and has a prior domestic abuse record from his home state. He incorporated a trucking company there, Summerson Transport LLC, in March 2020.
