A 70-year old Mt. Lake man faces a felony charge from an incident that occurred on May 9.
A criminal complaint said Brian Wayne Dick, a resident of Mt. Lake, has been charged with the reckless discharge of a firearm within a municipality.
According to the statement of probable cause, a Mt. Lake police officer received a voicemail from a reporting party about a man shooting a gun on his porch. The reporting party indicated that the man lived on 11th Street in a yellow house and that the incident happened twice.
The complaint said the reporting party believed the man was shooting at a neighbor’s cat and mentioned a similar occurrence a few weeks prior involving squirrels.
The officer visited the residence and spoke with the defendant, Dick, who admitted to shooting squirrels in town with a .22 short hollow point. Dick showed the officer the tree he was targeting on the south side of his property and stated that if he missed, he would only hit the tree. He admitted to firing two shots from his door on the day of the incident.
The complaint said the officer observed bullet holes around a bird feeder and a bullet on the ground by the back porch. He noted that if the defendant missed the tree, there was a sidewalk, street and residential houses behind it. The following day, an officer inspected a neighbor’s property and found two small holes in a fence and a bullet fragment in the siding, consistent with a .22 bullet.
The complaint warns that failure to appear for scheduled court appearances may result in additional criminal charges and an arrest warrant.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
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