Bay City Man Facing Felony Charges For Pointing A Pellet Gun
Eric G. Waroff, a 20-year-old man from Bay City, has been charged with a four year felony for allegedly pointing a weapon at a fellow motorist on the road. The weapon in question? A pellet gun.
Shortly after 5 pm on Sunday, May 4th, 38-year-old Aaron J. Delooze was driving north on Madison Avenue with his wife and son in the car. As they pulled up to the traffic light at the Woodside Avenue intersection, Delooze claims that a gray Dodge Charger in the next lane pulled up beside his vehicle and a young man in the front passenger seat pointed a gun out of the window. Delooze told police that he believed the gun to be real, and had slowed down to get away.
Delooze called 911 to report the incident, and followed the Dodge over Liberty Bridge, until the driver eventually pulled over on Alp Street. At this point the driver apparently got out of his car and told Delooze that the gun wasn’t real; it was in actual fact an Airsoft pellet gun. Delooze states that he told the driver to get back into his vehicle and wait for the police to arrive.
Police arrived and interviewed the four people in the Dodge. They also recovered four Airsoft guns from their car. The driver and two of the passengers claimed that they had just bought the Airsofts at a flea market and were headed to the woods to play with them. They denied pointing the guns at anyone.
The front seat passenger, Waroff, who has been accused of pointing the gun at Delooze, told police that he had been looking at one of the guns at the traffic light but never pointed it at anybody. “I didn’t really think to conceal the gun,” he said, adding “Come on, it was just an Airsoft gun. I never stuck the gun out the window. Well, the butt of the gun may have been outside the window by the barrel was pointed forward.”
Officers arrested Waroff and he was arraigned the following day on one count of assault with dangerous weapon by Bay County Chief District Judge Timothy J. Kelly. This is a felony charge which is punishable by up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000. Judge Kelly set bond at $10,000 cash-surety, and scheduled a preliminary examination for 2:30 pm on Monday, May 19th.
Many people may believe that a pellet gun is not a real weapon, however, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Non-powder guns, including BB, air and pellet guns, injured 13,851 people in 2010, which includes 9,252 young people aged 19 or younger. So while they are not as many deaths caused by pellet guns as standard firearms, they are certainly potentially dangerous, if not deadly, when used incorrectly.