The man was driving a maroon pickup truck when he was apprehended by the police on Wednesday.
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Soldiers training at Camp Shelby reported that shots were fired into the air around 8 a.m. on Wednesday in the same area where gunfire was reported on Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Christian Patterson, a spokesman at the Mississippi Military Department, said in a statement.
Shots were reported outside Camp Shelby, a military post in Mississippi, for the second straight day, federal and state military officials said on Wednesday.
The soldiers at the camp and authorities believe that 61-year-old Alfred Baria Sr. attacked the military members when he allegedly opened fire near the base, but Baria Sr. claims that the noises they heard were the backfiring of his battered Isuzu truck.
Baria was charged with four misdemeanor counts of disturbing the peace related to the noises. A search of Baria’s home turned up two guns.
Alan Hawes/AP Shots rang out along the eastern edge of the National Guard facility in southern Mississippi on Tuesday, police said.
“The soldiers at Camp Shelby and across the state can and should take appropriate steps to defend themselves as necessary”, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Wednesday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives bomb squad came from Biloxi to x-ray the pipe and found it was not an explosive.
Barria admitted being the driver of the truck, Smith said.
Sheriff Smith said he couldn’t verify whether the truck backfires. Smith said Baria hasn’t admitted firing any shots and authorities have found no shell casings. Due to recent events in Chattanooga, Camp Shelby was already under heightened security.
And those pipes? Two big, long ones were for plumbing a newly built auto fix shop in the backyard, Alfred Baria Jr. said.
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Alfred Baria Jr. said he owned the rifle and pistol that netted felony charges for his father, not realizing the father, previously convicted on drug charges, couldn’t be anywhere on the property with them. Smith said Baria would likely be appointed a lawyer at a bail hearing scheduled Thursday.
