Man with pellet gun arrested after police move in with armored truck
EUGENE, Ore. - Police responding to a report of an armed subject swarmed the 18th and Bertelsen area Wednesday.
Police responded at 12:24 to a report of man who appeared to be loading a rifle while sitting in a chair in his front yard with the weapon pointed at a neighbor's yard.
Dozens of police units and an armored vehicle responded to the S. Bertelesen Road home.
Police detained three people and arrested the man seen with the rifle, which turned out to be a pellet gun.
Alan James Ryan, 26, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct, two counts of Reckless Endangering and cited for Unlawful Discharge of a Firearm.
The weapon was found to be a pellet gun, which is defined by City Code as a firearm.
City Code 4.885 read: "Weapons - Discharging Firearms. Except on established ranges, no person other than a peace officer in line of duty shall discharge a gun, including spring or air-actuated pellet gun, air gun or BB gun, or other weapon which propels a projectile by use of gunpowder or other explosive, jet, or rocket propulsion."
Churchill High School and Kennedy Middle School both went in modified lockdown during the incident, securing the outside doors. Classes continued as normal inside the buildings during the modified lockdown, according to the Eugene 4J School District.
I'm so, so glad that the perp wasn't using a half eaten pop tart!
Over reaction by a para military police force wanting to play with their big boy toys. Â Just wait until they get their tanks that DHS bought to go along with their 1.6 million 40 caliber cartridges. Â
Lots of info left out of the article. When did he fire the weapon? What did he shoot? Why doesn't this article include info about his past arrests for meth, burglary and concealed carrying without a license?
A guy with a gun pointed at his neighbors house is a threatening guy with a gun, pellet gun or not. How is anybody supposed to know until they check it out. . It could have been a toy gun but I don`t think it`s safe to assume that. I think I`d personally rather see the cops over-react than underr=react. either way, they`re going to get criticized. Besides that, I own and shoot pellet guns. I  Love them but don`t play them down.  They aren`t like bb guns of old. They have almost the same power as a 22 long rifle and dead accurate. They can kill a person easily. Definitely Not for kids or grown up adult dummies to be playing with in the front yard. I`m pretty sure this guy didn`t mean any harm, he just wasn`t thinking
@HunterÂ
Now...what you wrote here makes very good sense
@Hunter A guy sitting in a lawn chair in his yard with a weapon is a "threatening guy?" And to answer your rhetorical question question about how you're supposed to know without checking it out... humans are excellent at accessing threats according to body language. Rather than "GUN! THREAT! 911!," you can observe for behavior that is actually threatening.
@Hunter"Appeared to be loading a rifle while sitting in a chair in his front yard with the weapon pointed at a neighbor's yard." Where in that quote does it say he pointed it a the neighbor him/herself. The gun could easily have been laying across his lap with the barrel pointing towards the neighbors property (opposed to a busy road). There are nowhere near enough details in this report to determine if the pellet gun was even used to intimidate his neighbor or if he was merely enjoying a nice day on his property in PACNORWEST with is toy and his neighbor is an anti-gun/uneducated in firearm law person.
The police obviously didn't have anything better to do that day. Â I walked up to a patrol officer parked right in front of one of our rentals, that just happened to have been broken into over x-mas break, and i was the one who found it, and the officer wouldn't even get out of the car to "clear the house" for me. Â I told him I would take care of it and if there was a problem I would come and get him.Â
An overturned donut truck would have gotten more attention than the pellet gun, if it was called in at the same time.Â
You point a pellet gun at me, you are a dead man.
@Robbie RainbowÂ
Agreed
I'll second that....
Talk about your over reaction. I saw 3 of the cops go by my work. I new something was up. I don't agree with using these armored vehicles.
what a bunch of paranoid morons. it scares me that this country has come to this. a bunch of candy ass'sÂ
my guess is before the war on terror (9/11) this would not have been a story. Â Fear is a large human emotion that most governments know how to use and abuse.
I'm glad they responded. Pellet guns can be dangerous, too. There have been cases of deaths. Â Today a 5-year old boy nearly died when hit in the head (see link). There are regular reports of them being used to intimidate, rob, and injure others. Â Here is a link of 71 such incidents, just involving children: Â http://kidshootings.blogspot.com/search/label/Pellet%20and%20BB%20Guns
@Baldr Odinson Saw you on Kezi couple weeks back at the anti gun gathering. All 20 of you.  What is more dangerous is 30 cops and an armored car overreacting to a guy with a pellet gun.
@givupongod 20 included the media. Lol.
Same old gaarbage, what a tool .
@POSTALONE Next he'll be coming for our slingshots and paintballs.
It was a good day to rob the 7-11 on the other side of town. Â Apparently all the cops in the city were called in on this.
Stupid ordinance. It wasn't that many years ago when kids ran all around Eugene with BB and pellet guns and nobody was ever injured that I can remember. Â
And, once again, overreaction by neighbors and police who run their SWAT team out, wasting THOUSANDS of taxpayer dollars.  Remember, according to the news story, this guy didn't threaten anyone!   Eventually, the police will be reacting this way over some guy out in his yard with an AXE, chopping firewood. What a senseless waste of resources.
@thisBITES!Kind of like what happened last year (http://riverroadsantaclara.kval.com/news/public-spaces/256946-armed-subject-prompts-swat-response-near-north-eugene-hs). Only those boys weren't charged with anything. Wonder why this individual was?
@Twistthewrist Well that just goes to demonstrate that this city doesn't learn. =/Â
@thisBITES! When I was in grade school in Junction City in the late 50's, we'd bring our new scout knife-or even our new Daisy BB gun for "show-and-tell" We never ever even considered using it on anyone and all the teacher would ask us to do is keep it in our desk or in the cloak closet.  Times they have a changed!
Oh no, Ralphie, no BB guns! Â You'll shoot your eye out!Â
So much for LEGAL open carry in the shi##y of eugene(sic). The knee jerk reaction of the persons seeing this and of the EPD gestapo are a prime example of intolerance in your city.
Maybe all of us who are licensed to carry should open carry around the city and see what happens.
@Country Boy Well you better read up on concealed carry and open carry then.Concealed carry permits do not allow for open carry
@Whitehawk @Country Boy BUT the Oregon Constitution does.
@Country BoyÂ
Yes, do that.
Let's just see what happens.
@Vetzero An overreaction, and then going on your merry way, obviously. There are people who open carry and nothing "happens" to them other than being hassled. Eventually people would stop overreacting.Â
@PleaseBeSmart @VetzeroIt's happened before.  Just take a search over at Youtube for footage.  The encounters go just as PleaseBeSmart says.
@Country Boy No one needs a license to open carry publicly in Eugene, unless you're going into a city park or something like that. :)
@Country Boy Now, now, we wouldn't want to give them an inadequacy complex when they find out how many of us there really are. Best to just keep them guessing.
The denizens of Eugene should really get it through their head that the open display of firearms is perfectly legal and not, in itself, a cause for alarm. What a complete overreaction. As far as I'm concerned, this only demonstrates that more people should openly carry their weapons around town, as people clearly aren't as used to seeing it as they should be.
@PleaseBeSmart I was wondering how long it would take for the gun nuts to come out on this one, including PleaseBeSmart, who has made threats of violence against me.
@Baldr Odinson LMFAO. Your delusion has no end! I'd like to see a direct quote of that please, Jason. =D And why didn't you report my alleged threat of violence against you?
Baldr...you have really stretched this one...you have shown here that you are truely delusional!!! That was not a threat TO YOU by PleaseBeSmart or to anyone else personally!!! I so pity you!!!
@Baldr Odinson @PleaseBeSmart Anyone who actually knows law would know a threat has to be imminent to be actionable.
@Baldr Odinson Way to twist things out of context, Mr. Kilgore. Tisk, tisk! You know as well as I do that I was referring to armed insurrection in the event of government disarmament of the people. If you truly feel it was a threat though, why did you not report me?Â
@PleaseBeSmart @Baldr Odinson See here:  http://newtrajectory.blogspot.com/2013/03/more-pro-gun-threats-and-insults.html
@PleaseBeSmartÂ
I have a gun...and I carry it.
I keep my gun, 'clean'...I use it for what it's made for...self defense.
@PleaseBeSmart It amazes me how a city that claims to have such tolerance and diversity can be so ignorant and prejudice to law abiding citizens minding there own business.
@Twistthewrist @PleaseBeSmart Ever hear of the words "Double Standard" and "Hypocrisy". A lot of this starts in the schools.
@Twistthewrist @PleaseBeSmart Â
There are none as intolerant as those who preach tolerance. Â
So that's what all the crazy was about. Was he threatening someone? The front yard is directly across the street from the wildlife preserve. He was probably was taking pop shots at the posts across the street. Curious if EPD sent a unit to investigate before dispatching the SWAT van. There were plenty of officers hanging out behind the blue pickup (next door to the residents) and yet no bullhorn was heard as an attempt to bring the individuals out.Â
@Twistthewrist Well now you certainly would not expect a police officer to check something like this out by themselves would you.  After all police work is just too dangerous. It is okay to be afraid, it is not normal to panic. Fear heightens awareness (used to teach recruits this), panic deadens senses.
@TwistthewristÂ
...wait for it.
Don't assume 'facts' not given in evidence.
We're going to find out whats going on over there.
@Vetzero @Twistthewrist Through my binoculars I had a pretty good view of what was going on over there.
@Twistthewrist
Maybe it did...had to go make sure.
Another idiot dealt with.
NEXT
@Vetzero @Twistthewrist Maybe it had one of those evil 30 round mags?
@Twistthewrist
...a guy with a pellet gun ?
LOL LOL LOL