Police say man pointed gun at investigating troopers
A Summit Township man is accused of pointing a rifle in the direction of troopers called to his home for a neighbor dispute.
No one was injured in the incident Friday afternoon.
Joshua J. Campbell, 44, who is free on $75,000 bail, is facing felony assault and other charges.
State police said they went to the neighborhood on the 900 block of Bonniebrook Road about 2 p.m. for a reported altercation between two next-door residents. The complaining neighbor claimed the defendant had brandished a gun.
The neighbors share a common driveway, and police said they have been called there before for previous disputes.
Campbell agreed to speak with an officer at the end of his driveway, police said. But at some point, according to charging documents, he ignored the commands of other officers, who had their weapons drawn.
He told one of the officers “to stop pointing his gun at him,” documents said, “and he began walking back toward his house.”
The defendant got to the front porch, police said, “where he reached inside his doorway, and he pulled an AR-15 rifle out onto his porch.”
Two officers took cover behind a cruiser as Campbell allegedly “pointed the rifle in their direction,” documents said.
But a short time later, police said, he put down the rifle and returned to the end of the driveway. He was subsequently arrested.
District Judge Lewis Stoughton arraigned Campbell, who had no prior arrests, on two felony counts of aggravated assault and two misdemeanor counts each of terroristic threats and simple assault.
Stoughton also imposed several bond conditions upon Campbell's release, including that he be placed on pretrial supervision, surrender all of his firearms to the county sheriff and have no contact with the victim.
His preliminary hearing is tentatively set for June 2. He referred questions to his attorney, Joel Lansing Hills.
“I believe this was a big misunderstanding and my client uniformly denies all the allegations within the complaint,” Hills said Sunday. “He has his own story to tell and he looks forward to that.”
