Posted on 08/26/2011 10:38:18 AM PDT by marktwain
A second man admitted he also fired a gun in an alleged shooting the night of Aug. 11 at Buffalo Inn in the town of Champion, but he will not be charged, Jefferson County Sheriff John P. Burns said Wednesday.
One man has been charged. Sgt. 1st Class Richard J. Olson Jr., 33, of 10265 Plank Road, Copenhagen, is free on $20,000 bond awaiting prosecution on charges of first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
The sheriff’s department alleges that following an exchange of words in the tavern, Mr. Olson went for his gun and fired it at Clayton D. Blake, 26, West Carthage, and Kody Heukrath, 25, Deer River. He and his wife then rode away on their horses, and the following morning, Mr. Olson was arrested at his home.
Mr. Blake, in a statement he gave the sheriff’s department the morning of the arrest, said that after Mr. Olson discharged a gun that “appeared to be a novelty cigarette lighter,” he, Mr. Blake, grabbed a Ruger from his truck, “where the guy was circling around on his horse with his gun still in his hand, pointing the gun in our direction. That’s when I fired one shot in his direction. I did not hit him ... because I wasn’t aiming directly at him.”
Detectives said they believed Mr. Blake fired his gun in self-defense, Sheriff Burns said, and for that reason, he is not being charged.
Mr. Blake described the shooting by Mr. Olson.
The soldier, decorated with the Silver Star for heroism in Afghanistan, pointed the weapon at Mr. Heukrath and said, “I will kill you.”
“I told him to put the cigarette lighter way. He turned and pointed it at my face. I knocked his hand away to protect myself. Then he said, ‘If you ever touch me again I will kill you too.’ Then he made a passing motion from me to Kody and between us, but it could have been on one side or the other. The shot went away from the building and towards the road.”
Anthony M. Neddo, Mr. Olson’s attorney, said his client “strongly maintains his innocence and denies the criminal accusations against him.”
Mr. Neddo also took exception to the manner in which the sheriff’s emergency response team went to the Olson home, “entered it without a search warrant or consent” and immediately took Mrs. Olson into custody, having her keep her hands raised at gunpoint while she was being ordered to wake her husband.
Sheriff Burns said he does not want to get into a public exchange with the lawyer, but he interviewed separately two of his detectives who participated in the arrest.
“We were very compassionate when we spoke with his wife, and she warned us that if we rushed in and woke him up, that would set him off,” he said. “So we asked her to wake him up, and she did. There was no gun pointing, no shouting and screaming. It was over and done with.”
A search warrant was not needed, Sheriff Burns said, “if it is a possible life and death situation, where there is proper cause to believe that people could be harmed.”
Mr. Neddo said that prior to the incident, Mr. Olson had been placed in the warrior transition unit “because of injuries sustained while his platoon suffered a devastating attack when a fellow soldier stepped on an IED and both he and our client suffered severe injuries during his last tour in Afghanistan.”
The sheriff’s department alleges that following an exchange of words in the tavern, Mr. Olson went for his gun and fired it at Clayton D. Blake, 26, West Carthage, and Kody Heukrath, 25, Deer River. He and his wife then rode away on their horses, and the following morning, Mr. Olson was arrested at his home.
Just like a good Western.
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