CHINA — A Jeep speeding across a lawn chasing a man wielding a baseball bat. Smashed windows, ruined equipment and a leg injury. Neighbors up in arms.

Police say that was the scene at a mobile home park on Chadwick Drive earlier this week. A local man faces felony charges stemming from the chaotic encounter after he allegedly hit a woman with his Jeep and tried to run down her husband.

Wayne Brann, 37, was arrested Wednesday after turning himself in at the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office in Augusta, police said Friday.

Police said the dispute between neighbors began Saturday when a fist fight broke out between Brann and a 19-year-old man who lives near Brann in the mobile home park. Both men had earlier been involved in a road rage incident, according to Maine State Police reports.

The fight flared again when the 19-year-old man’s father, who the man lives with, went to Brann’s home and threatened him, according to a state police report.

All the men were separated by police and issued notices forbidding them from contacting each other.

“That’s what started the whole thing,” said Sgt. Scott Taylor of the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office.

But it didn’t end there. Pressure continued to build Monday night when Brann and his brother-in-law repeatedly cruised by the home of the 19-year-old and his father, police said. The pair refused Brann’s challenge to a fight.

Tuesday night, the dispute turned into a melee. Brann and his brother-in-law screamed at the father and his wife as the couple drove by Brann’s house on the way home, Taylor said. They pulled into their driveway as Brann’s brother-in-law walked down the road and challenged the father to fight.

Brann, meanwhile, hopped in his Jeep Cherokee and sped down the road and came to a stop right in front of the man’s wife.

“She said something and (Brann) pulled forward a foot,” Taylor said. “When he did, she fell over.”

The woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital with a non life-threatening leg injury, Taylor said.

The husband, who saw Brann’s Jeep hit his wife, charged with a baseball bat and broke out the driver’s side window, Taylor said.

“Brann said he lost control,” Taylor said.

Brann drove up to the son’s vehicle and began pushing it with his Jeep, Taylor said. Brann held the throttle until the son’s vehicle crashed through a one-bay garage, destroying a snow machine and a new generator.

“There’s probably $8,000 worth of damage,” Taylor said. “He pushed a tractor right out through the side of the building.”

Brann then shifted the Jeep in reverse and began chasing the father, who ducked behind utility poles for cover. Brann’s Jeep criss-crossed the lawn as he spun around trying to hit the father, Taylor said.

The father smashed out the Jeep’s passenger side windows with his baseball bat.

Taylor said he was just a few minutes away when he received the call for help, but Brann and his brother-in-law had fled by the time he arrived.

Taylor and Cpl. G.J. Neagle III staked out the area for several hours and repeatedly tried to call Brann on his cellphone. Taylor said he talked to Brann’s wife Wednesday, who said her husband planned to turn himself in after speaking to an attorney.

Taylor said he appreciated Brann’s cooperation.

“His story was the same as my victims,” Taylor said. “He confessed to the whole thing. He said he didn’t mean to hit the wife. He just meant to nudge her. He was very cooperative and very apologetic.”

Brann was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated criminal mischief, driving to endanger and operating after suspension.

Brann was being held at the Kennebec County jail late Friday afternoon on $10,060 cash bail, or $40,000 in property.

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