Report: Man tries to hit mother with rifle, 'considered shooting' a sheriff's deputy

Brett Shoemaker
Brett Shoemaker

A Pulaski County man tried to hit his mother with a rifle before fleeing into a field, where he "considered shooting" a sheriff's deputy who responded to the disturbance, authorities said in a report.

Brett Shoemaker, 43, was jailed on charges of aggravated assault on a family member, resisting arrest and public intoxication.

The Pulaski County sheriff's office says it started about 7:45 p.m. Thursday when deputies were called to a disturbance at a home in the 13000 block of Old River Drive in Scott. There, Shoemaker's 69-year-old mother said he had become "irrational" while drinking when he tried to hit her with the butt of a rifle before fleeing into a field behind the home, according to a report. Shoemaker had threatened to "shoot any Deputy that arrived and then himself," the mother told authorities.

Deputies used a fire department mobile unit with a camera to search the field from a safe location when Shoemaker stood up from a brush pile, holding the rifle.

"The suspect came into the open and had a rifle in his right hand, grasping it in the middle of the weapon and was ordered several times to drop the weapon and at first refused saying the the second amendment gave him the right to carry a gun," deputy Jeffrey Scott wrote in the report. "After several commands Brett placed the rifle down and I approached and told him that he was going to be handcuffed and he stated that he would not."

Shoemaker pulled away when authorities moved in and he was later shocked with a Taser before being taken into custody, the report said.

Police say he had a second gun and extra ammunition in his pocket.

"While talking with Brett, he stated that he considered shooting a Deputy, but felt that he could not win the encounter due to the number of Deputies that had arrived," Scott wrote in the report.

Shoemaker was being held in the Pulaski County jail without bail Friday morning.

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