A 29-year-old Big Horn County man accused of threatening to shoot livestock, then telling deputies to “shut up” and daring them to “act like a dipshit and shoot me” faces up to 35 years in prison.
Timothy Brian Bates is still awaiting his first appearance in Big Horn County Circuit Court following his Thursday arrest after he allegedly took a gun from a family member’s car and proclaimed to officers that “I am a citizen” before injuring a deputy while actively resisting arrest.
He remains in the Big Horn County Detention Center on a $250,000 bond, according to jail records. He’s been charged with aggravated burglary, interference with a peace officer and reckless endangering.
An affidavit of probable cause written by Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Austin Leonhardt details deputies responding to a rural property near Byron for a woman who reported Bates had stolen her firearm “and was threatening to shoot her livestock.”
While Bates seemed to have calmed down some by the time deputies arrived, he became uncooperative and hostile toward law enforcement, Leonhardt says in the affidavit.
“When I arrived on scene, a male subject, later identified as Timothy Bates, got up from his seated position on a flatbed trailer and walked away to the east toward a shop,” the deputy wrote. “I called out to Bates multiple times, but he continued to walk away from me.”
‘Shoot Me’
With another deputy having arrived at the scene, Bates told Leonhardt to “shut up” as he was given directions to put his hands up, the affidavit says.
He then told deputies to “put your goddamn guns away” and dared them to “act like a dipshit and shoot me,” according to the affidavit.
He continued to resist verbally and physically while deputies tried to detain him, Leonhardt wrote.
“While I was attempting to gain control of his right arm and Deputy (Caden) Zeller was attempting to gain control of his left arm, I observed a firearm in the back of his belt line,” the affidavit says. “I told him we were ‘going to the ground if he didn’t knock it off.’
“To which he said, ‘I don’t care if we go to the ground, but you guys get the f*** off me.’”
Deputies hit him with a knee strike to throw Bates off balance and get him on the ground, then rolled him over.
They removed the pistol from his pants, which was loaded with a round in the chamber and 11 rounds in a magazine. Another magazine was found in Bates’ pocket with 14 rounds in it.
Deputy Hurt
Bates fired anywhere from one to three shots from the gun before deputies arrived, although it appears those may have been into the ground and not at a person or livestock, the affidavit says.
However, Bates was facing a large playground near the home that a child was playing on at the time, the document continues.
A witness “told me that her daughter was playing on the playground when Bates fired the shot(s),” Leonhardt wrote. “She said she could hear Bates ‘cussing and yelling’ about how ‘they murdered his dogs.’”
The affidavit doesn’t elaborate about what may have happened to Bates’ dogs.
Bates reportedly took the gun from the vehicle of a family member, but it didn’t belong to him, and he didn’t have permission to have it, the affidavit says.
The family member “said that after things had calmed down, Bates still ‘did not want to give up the gun,’” according to the affidavit.
Asked if Bates had any business having the gun, the family member said, “No, none at all,” the affidavit says.
During the struggle to detain Bates, Deputy Leonhardt reports that he was injured.
“I am experiencing pain in my right wrist and lower back,” the affidavit says. “Additionally, I developed knee pain that began after my evaluation at North Big Horn Hospital and has progressively worsened since that time.”
The most serious charge, aggravated burglary, carries a sentence of five to 25 years in prison, a fine of not more than $50,000, or both.
A conviction of felony interference with a peace officer comes with a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Reckless endangering is a misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to a year behind bars and/or a $750 fine.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
