Brian Irons

"The G-Virus is a viral weapon for advancing human evolution."

- Irons telling Claire about William Birkin's project.

Brian Irons was a Raccoon City police officer who served as its last Chief of Police in 1998. Financially-corrupt, he had intimate knowledge of the Umbrella Corporation's research in the city and received bribes to keep them from being investigated. He was killed by Dr. William Birkin during the Raccoon City Destruction Incident.

Early life
Irons is known to have attended university. He was put under psychiatric examination after two incidents in which he was accused of violent aggression towards female students. Due to his excellent academic performances, the incidents were not investigated.

Chief of Police
Irons became Chief of Police at the Raccoon Police Department and began receiving bribes from Dr. William Birkin to keep Umbrella's biological weapons research in the area a secret. In exchange for his silence, Irons attended briefings on the 6th and 16th of every month.

In May 1998 the t-Virus contaminated the Arklay Laboratory and infected dogs and Zombies escaped and killed hikers and suburban families. Irons was invited to emergency meetings repeatedly over June and July. The news that Umbrella was unable to halt the spread of the virus took its toll on him and resulted in angry and violent outbursts, evidenced by descriptions of him from the sewer manager. On July 9 the R.P.D. put up road blocks to the Arklay Mountains on his orders. Soon it became clear to Umbrella that Irons could not halt a S.T.A.R.S. investigation of the mysterious deaths any longer, and the unit was sent into Raccoon Forest to investigate on July 23. Two days later, the Bravo Team was decimated to all but one while four returned from Alpha Team. As Umbrella had expected all of S.T.A.R.S. to perish in their "X-Day" scenario, this posed a risk the company. Birkin renewed pressure on Irons to keep S.T.A.R.S. quiet, such as having a police team keep them under surveillance to prevent them investigating the chemical plant. S.T.A.R.S. was disbanded by Irons to make it harder for their investigation. On August 16 Irons came in late for his scheduled meeting with Birkin, visibly stressed. The sewer manager's attempt to cheer him up backfired and Irons took his gun out, threatening to shoot the man.

In September 1998 Irons was alerted by Birkin as a mission into the city by U.S.S. (Umbrella Security Service) soldiers to steal the G-Virus.

Raccoon City Destruction Incident
On September 23, Irons was alerted to the leak of the t-Virus into the city's water supply. Overcome with this news, Irons finally broke down mentally. Believing himself to be infected, he began giving confusing orders to the police officers to ensure that the entire precinct died with him. One such order was for the weapons to be relocated to various caches around the precinct, aware that the Zombies would soon render those caches unreachable. On September 26 Irons decided to take a more direct approach and shoot people on sight, killing one officer named Ed.

When Michael Warren, the city's mayor and fellow Umbrella bribe, fled town, Irons hunted down and abducted his daughter, claiming to Claire that he was supposed to be protecting her. He ultimately killed her on the night of September 29, wishing to remove her organs and stuff her as a taxidermy display. Claire Redfield, sister of S.T.A.R.S. officer Chris Redfield, entered Irons' office shortly after the murder to investigate her last scream. There, Irons shook off the murder as an overzealous attempt to prevent an already infected person from transforming into a Zombie and taught Claire that destruction or removal of the brain was the only way to ensure their death. When Claire left, Irons dragged the body into a secret compartment leading to private basement.

Claire later found the compartment and found Irons hiding inside. There, he admitted his relationship with Umbrella and expressed his anger, feeling betrayed by the city's destruction. While cornering Claire with the intent of ensuring she died with him, he also obliged her request by revealing what he knew about the G-Virus, and also made clear that the girl Claire encountered, Sherry, was the daughter of the virus' discoverer. Within seconds he was killed by the very G-Virus he had helped Birkin protect.

Personality
Irons is shown to have an uneasy relationship with people within his own police force as well as members of the press. His criminal history was found out through a fax sent to Chris Redfield that was found by his sister Claire Redfield in the S.T.A.R.S. office. In his diary, he mentioned that Edward's pained expression when he shot him in the back was "positively exquisite" and "beautiful," suggesting that Irons was also extremely sadistic and a likely psychopath. He was also extremely selfish to an unhealthy degree, which was best showcased in how he attempted to ensure the city died with him, even going out of his way to sabotage police efforts to evacuate the civilians, all because he became paranoid that he had been infected with the t-Virus. Similarly, he also had a severe lack of control over his temper. This was best demonstrated when he was tasked with going to the sewers on August 16, when he threatened to shoot the Umbrella-affiliated manager in charge of the sewers simply for trying to tell a joke with the chief. This short temper was similarly demonstrated when Claire encountered him just prior to his death, where, when she asked him to calm down and tell her what happened, Irons angrily told her to shut up and proceeded to threateningly point his gun at her while ranting angrily that she can't ever understand what happened.

Ben Bertolucci is able to intercept letters from Umbrella to Irons showing the connection between the two.

In Resident Evil Outbreak File #2, Irons is implied to drink on the job or at the very least keep a secret stash of alcohol on hand. A bottle of liquor belonging to him is found in the east office of the R.P.D. during "desperate times". In addition, a file found during the "outbreak" scenario of Resident Evil Outbreak as well as the presence of human skulls in his taxidermy room implies that Irons was a serial killer and killed at least eight women whose profiles resembled that of Mayor Warren's daughter sometime between the Mansion Incident and the Raccoon City Destruction Incident.

Taste in the Arts
Irons was a collector of fine art, and used his bribes from Umbrella to purchase a variety of artwork including paintings and statues. His secretary's diary shows that he had leered when he received the painting of the nude woman being hanged. He uses this painting as well as a statue to hide the Virgin Heart jewels as well as other "keys" to progress through the various hidden areas of the police station. His secretary had accidentally leaned into one such statue, which set him off. Whether this was over the protection of his secrets or the safety of the artwork is unknown.

Irons was a taxidermist by hobby earlier in life and was ready to stuff the mayor's daughter and display her as a trophy. His office was full of stuffed animals including bears, eagles, a raccoon, and others. A file found during "end of the road" in Resident Evil Outbreak file #2 also strongly suggests that not only does he auction off several taxidermied animals from the defunct Rams museum off the books and illegally, but that some of his auctions involved stuffed endangered species members.

Further Notes

 * In an act of censorship, the English localization of Darkside Chronicles establishes in a file Irons as having a wife, and he has a criminal past regarding domestic violence. The Japanese script for the same file instead describes his criminal past as being two cases of rape or sexual assault. The same file was also censored in Umbrella Chronicles as well.
 * In the scene where Brian Irons relays everything he knows about the G-Virus while threatening Claire in his taxidermy room, the localization erroneously inferred that the T-00 (referred to as "that monster that is tearing apart the precinct") was created by the G-Virus and that it was the ultimate bio-weapon when Brian Irons was explaining its properties to Claire. In the original script, he instead commented that the virus has the ability to rapidly advance human evolution without even mentioning the T-00.
 * Brian Irons made a cameo appearance in the Mini-Game, The Mercenaries - Operation: Mad Jackal in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. You meet him at the end of the mini game when you manage to get into the Warehouse Save Room, the end point of the mini-game where he beckons a woman to deliver a briefcase that presumably contained the player's payment. His face is hidden by shadows when the player meets him, though.
 * In the prototype version of Resident Evil 2 (known as Resident Evil 1.5), Irons was originally intended to be an ally to the player, as opposed to him being an antagonist which he was in the final version of the game. He was injured (apparently he was bitten by zombies) and was laying down on a couch as a result of his wounds. Eventually he sacrificed himself, allowing the players to escape from an imminent death.
 * Brian Iron's signature is seen in the ID cards of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine in the first Resident Evil game and its remake.
 * His death is different in Leon A, Claire B: He is pulled in the trap door by the mutated Birkin. His screams are heard as Claire listens. When Claire approaches the trap door, the mutilated top half of his corpse flies out of the trap door and lands on the floor. This version of his demise was later used for the WildStorm interpretation of the character.
 * The other death scenario is when a mutated Birkin inserts an embryo in Brian's body and the player listens to his screams before entering the room, when inside the room Brian seems to be fine but after a few seconds a G embryo bursts out of his chest and escapes down the ladder to be confronted later by Claire.
 * In Darkside Chronicles, Brian Irons had a brief appearance in the level Memories of a Lost City, where he encounters Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, and Sherry Birkin. He is seen with a blonde cadaver in a white dress (implied to be the Mayor's daughter) and voicing his intentions to stuff her. Kennedy then recognizes Irons, with Claire asking how he knew him. Irons then accuses them of being after the G-virus due to their snooping around. He then notices Sherry and recognizes her as William Birkin's daughter, although he is interrupted mid-sentence by painful spasms, knocking over the cadaver he had earlier been working on and weakly asking for help as it was not supposed to happen as "G" emerged from his body.
 * The seventh clue of Inserted Evil leads to a collection of documents relating to Chief Irons; including a complaint by his secretary, a statement by Irons addressing the complaint (and a more strongly-worded rough draft which implicated Umbrella), a report by Umbrella detailing Irons's increasingly erratic behavior, ultimately recommending that Umbrella has to take action to ensure secrecy.