I'm guessing it's the one on the right:
Posted on 05/06/2009 4:20:49 AM PDT by marktwain
STEVENSVILLE-Brook Blakeley knows what it’s like to be looking down the business end of an assault rifle.
He didn’t much like it.
Two Saturdays back, Blakeley and his wife had just finished walking their usual three-mile loop around Three Mile Road on the east side of the Bitterroot Valley just north of Stevensville.
Like usual, Blakeley was carrying his pellet rifle on his shoulder. *
“My neighbor has given me permission to shoot starlings on his property and so I take my pellet gun along,” he said. “I’m also an avid hunter. I think it is good practice to carry it with me.”
The couple returned home which is located across the street from the little Three Mile Store. His wife went inside while Blakeley lingered on the porch with his rifle still on his shoulder.
“I saw a squad car coming down the road about that time,” he remembered. “It went by my house and then flipped a u-ey in the store’s parking lot. Dirt was flying everywhere. I thought the store was being robbed.”
Then, much to his surprise, the car pulled off Three Mile Road and onto his lot. Another squad car from the Stevensville City Police blocked the road he lives on.
Blakeley said he watched in amazement as officers began to deploy in front of his home. One carrying a tactical assault rifle took cover behind a trailer on his property. Another officer came directly at him with his pistol drawn. The officer was yelling at him to drop his weapon.
“I’ve watched a lot of cop shows,” Blakeley said. “I could tell that guy was on an adrenaline rush. I thought I was going to get killed.”
Blakeley said he took the gun off his shoulder, leaned it against the house and put his hands in the air. He started telling the officers: “This is my home. I live here. This is a pellet gun.”
From inside his home, Blakeley could hear his wife screaming at him to come inside.
“She was very afraid and eventually ran to the back of the house,” Blakeley said.
In the next few minutes, the officers had Blakeley kneel in his front yard. He was handcuffed in front of his neighbors. They then led him to one of the squad cars where he was questioned.
The officers told Blakeley there had been two reports of him screaming at people and acting oddly.
He told them: “I can guarantee you that I haven’t taken this rifle off my shoulder and I haven’t spoken to a single person. Someone is lying to you.”
According to Blakeley, it took about 10 minutes for the officers to realize they had made a mistake. They released him.
“I couldn’t believe that this had just happened to me on my own front porch,” Blakeley said. “I don’t have anything against the officers. They were professional and courteous to me. I appreciate the fact that their job is sometimes dangerous, but someone lied to them and it put both me and my family in danger.”
Blakeley is asking the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office to complete a full investigation on the matter. Last week, he asked for copies of the police report, transcripts from the 911 call, names of the callers and other information.
On Monday, Blakeley said he hadn’t received any of it.
“I kind of feel like this is being swept under the rug,” he said. “This whole incident was totally embarrassing for me. I was mortified and completely humiliated. I’ve never had handcuffs on in my life.”
Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman said the officers responded appropriately considering the information they had received.
Hoffman said 911 dispatch received two calls about Blakeley that evening. The first reported a man walking around with a rifle over his shoulder. The second call had the man yelling at cars.
When the first call came in, a deputy was dispatched to the area. At that point, Hoffman said there wouldn’t be much reason for the officer to be apprehensive. The second call that had a man with a rifle yelling at cars was a different matter.
“That would escalate it a little bit,” Hoffman said. “An officer would start thinking that maybe there’s a potential situation.”
Officers from Stevensville were called for backup.
Somewhere along the route, someone flagged down the sheriff’s deputy and told him that Blakeley was pointing his rifle in the officer’s direction, Hoffman said.
“We have that conversation on tape,” he said.
At the point, the incident escalated.
“The call went from nothing but a drive-by to check it out to what in essence was a felony take-down of an individual,” Hoffman said. “When that happens, officers have their weapons out. No fingers are on the trigger, but it is serious.”
Hoffman is confident the officers reacted correctly.
“Given the information the officers had at the time, I am very confident that their response was absolutely appropriate,” he said.
Hoffman said he plans on providing Blakeley with the information he requested “within reason” as soon as possible.
“We’ll go out of our way to comply with Mr. Blakeley’s request and make sure that he has all the information that we can provide him,” Hoffman said. “We’ll do whatever we can to help him understand this situation.”
Blakeley said he’s looking forward to putting this incident behind him, but it’s not going to be easy.
His wife isn’t sure she want to stay in the home they recently built.
“She told me that she doesn’t feel safe here anymore,” Blakeley said. “She hasn’t been sleeping very well since this happened. She says she doesn’t want to be here anymore.”
Blakeley said all he wants is some assurance that the incident is being taken seriously.
“I just want an explanation on why this happened,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through something like this.”
Editor Perry Backus can be reached at 363-3300 or editor@ravallirepublic.com.
That’s a classic right there! LOL!
that’s one fine story. I only wish it were repeated for at least 50% of the hundreds of thousands of libs who’ve moved out of California these past ten-fifteen years, because it seems like these libs always wind up movin’ next door to a red state. In process turning formerly solid “red” states in to ugly stains of purple if not outright blue.
I swear, liberalism is like a virus. They kill the originating cell (real estate/taxes in LA, SF, PORT), but make a killing selling their homes and move towards a cheaper, better place. They leave for better pastures where Conservative values are family and Christ centered, where crime is minimal and the Law-Abiding Citizen can and does defend his family, where schools are rated highly and government is relatively smaller -— but they bring their poisonous attitudes/expectations and elitism with them, along with their voting habits. And government grows to accomodate their need to change the world according to their Rousseau-esque view of the way things oughtta be.
Then over the next 20 years, they slowly destroy their new home, and repeat the cycle anew.
They don’t realize that in essence, “they” are the problem.
What I haven’t figured out yet... is how in the hell to stop this virus.
JG
How would the officers’ know that this gentleman wasn’t a ‘crazed’ person with a gun when they were responding to the call? It sounds to me that they responded appropriately given the information they had. Also, it seems that the sheriff is willing to provide the information but it does take time to make those 911 tapes and get the reports together. I would guess that there is a reasonable time frame to receive the information. Lawyers, officers and other members of the public request these items all the time.
Bump for a very touching and heartfelt story.
; ^)
Starlings = invasive species
Kinda like democrats in conservative states.
Just found out she did this again over the weekend!
Sniff... Beautiful story, these damn allergies.
You must not be from farm country Starlings, English sparrows and pigeons are all considered pests that need eradication.A pellet gun is a superior weapon for swatting them. My fav is a sheridan blue streak that I got for my 12th birthday.I’m 46 and still enjoy it. So do my kids.
No worry just make up a story of how a unfired gun of a friend blew up because a spider had made a nest in the barrel. she’ll check it out or ask you to.
Someone is going to get killed by her scummy little stunt. She needs to be locked up!
Kid needs her ass beet”
Sugar beets, pickled beets I know.Never heard of an ass beet.
See my tagline. :)
great story!
That made me smile too, in fact, it made my day.
That was my thought, too. Until the information is released, we really don't know what led the officers to respond in such a manner.
I called 911 using my cell phone a few summers ago when I was being threatened by someone on the street. I gave the location and license plate numbers. No officer showed until I got home and called from my home phone. I never could get the police to retrieve the license plate numbers from my original 911 call. They just didn't want to take the time to look further into it. They said the cell phone call to 911 went to a different office. So, maybe people were dialing 911 from their cell phones, and there was some disconnect between one office and another...? That's all I can figure...
Otherwise, something doesn't smell right if the police aren't coming forth with the 911 tapes.
Its called target practice. A legal and legitimate means of controlling animal populations.
No kiddin'... and she cannot even tell me why she voted for the man who destroyed America. (shrug)
Your story just made my day. Thanks!
“Never heard of an ass beet.”
The color of a proper specimen should be bright red.
I recently helped my FIL move...He's a recent EX-SOCAL resident.
He now lives near us...in rural OK. Anyhow...I'm helping him move to a different location here..and I had been shooting my pistol the night before.
Anyway it was laying EMPTY in a holster in the back of my "evil" SUV...He saw it an recoiled...like he'd seen a snake!!
I explained to him why I had it...and that it was empty..and not dangerous. But he didn't even want to talk about it. This is a 84 yr old guy that served in WWII...
Kinda blew me away...but he's pretty much a liberal on way too many issues. Guns being one of them........
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