A Green River man is facing up to 10 years in prison on claims he pointed a loaded 9 mm pistol at a teen who parked a powered-off dirt bike on the grass in front of the man’s home.
Boyd Kettle, 70, was charged Monday with aggravated assault in Sweetwater County Circuit Court.
Kettle, who is not in jail, declined Monday to comment to Cowboy State Daily.
Court documents say Green River Police Department Officer Zachary Fryer was approached by two white juvenile males in the police department’s parking lot about 8:30 Saturday evening, says an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
One of the youths, whom court documents identify as “DF,” told police he and his friend rode their dirt bikes from Rock Springs to Green River that day via Country Road 53.
Their bikes ran out of gas in Green River, so they stopped at a local Exxon Mobil to get fuel. After getting fuel, they coasted their dirt bikes, without the engines running, down the sidewalk of West Flaming Gorge Way, the affidavit relates from DF’s interview.
A GPD officer came and talked to the teens, telling them not to have their dirt bikes on the sidewalk. While talking with the officer, one of the youths stopped his dirt bike on the sidewalk in front of a home.
Later, an older male stepped onto the porch, approached one of the youths identified as “LG” and his parked dirt bike, then pointed a black handgun at LG, the affidavit alleges.
“At no point did DF or LG threaten the male,” the affidavit relates from the teens’ interviews.
The document doesn’t say where the police officer who had warned the minors about not having their dirt bikes on the sidewalk was during this incident. The Green River Police Department did not immediately return a Tuesday phone message request for comment.
Mom Said Call Police
LG gave a similar account of the incident to police, saying he stopped his dirt bike on the sidewalk, and a man stepped onto the porch and started to yell at him. LG moved his dirt bike to the side of the street, and the man yelled at him again to get off his property, the young man told police.
LG said he wasn’t on the older man’s property, the affidavit relates.
The older man said he’d make LG leave, then pulled out a black handgun and pointed it at LG, says the document.
LG got off his dirt bike and left the area.
The document says DF got in touch with his mother, who told him to tell police what had happened. That was when LG saw Officer Fryer in the GPD parking lot and met with him.
‘Seemed Really Suspicious’
Police interviewed the homeowner, Kettle, who said he saw the two minors riding dirt bikes on the sidewalk in front of his home, so he went outside and called out to one of them.
The juvenile was acting like a “dumbass,” saying he couldn’t hear Kettle, the document relates.
The juvenile took off his helmet, then Kettle said he again told him to leave.
The juvenile moved his dirt bike off the sidewalk and onto the grass, and told Kettle he wasn’t on his property, Kettle reportedly recalled to police.
It all seemed really suspicious to Kettle, so he pointed his handgun at the teens and told them to leave, says the affidavit.
On Video
DF showed one of the police officers a video of the incident.
In the video, Kettle stood on the front porch as LG talked to him from the grass near the sidewalk, says the document.
LG walked out onto the sidewalk with his helmet in both hands. Then Kettle raised his hands in front of him with what appeared to be a black handgun in his right hand, the affidavit says.
One investigator described Kettle’s stance as a “shooting stance,” in the document.
The video then reportedly showed LG raising both hands into the air, saying they were leaving. The video ended with Kettle “still pointing the handgun at LG.”
The affidavit says officers collected a black 9 mm Taurus handgun from Kettle, and found the magazine loaded, a bullet in the chamber and the safety switch set to the “fire” setting.
Wyoming law contains multiple variations of aggravated assault. Among those are charging options for people accused of pointing a “drawn deadly weapon” at others. In both concept and in practice, it doesn’t matter if the gun was loaded: aggravated assault can still apply. Whether the gun was loaded can impact other aspects of the case, however.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
