5, 2015 photo released by the Perry County Sheriff’s Department shows Alfred Baria.
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One man is in custody following what soldiers at Camp Shelby thought were gunshots fired in the vicinity of their training camp. Smith also said Baria admitted to being able to make his truck backfire on command.
Either way, Baria has been charged with four misdemeanor counts of disturbing the peace related to the noises.
He told The Clarion-Ledger newspaper that deputies are at a residence where they found the vehicle, which he described as a red Ford Ranger with “broken arrow” written across the top. There were no reported injuries.
Baria’s son said he understood concerns about military safety, but said he felt officials were overreacting following repeated public statements about gunfire and a large police search.
Local and state authorities say they’re still checking out the father’s story, though Wednesday’s charges don’t allege he shot at soldiers.
Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said that “just out of an abundance of caution”, a bomb dog was being dispatched to where the man had been taken into custody. “It depends on what the investigation yields”. It was in the same area where soldiers reported gunshots fired from a pickup truck a day earlier, Patterson said.
Roughly 4,600 active-duty soldiers, National Guard service members and reservists from Mississippi are training this summer at the facility.
Wednesday morning more alleged gunfire rang out.
Lt. Col. Christian Patterson says that at about 8 a.m. Wednesday, soldiers training at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center reported shots fired into the air. Shortly after 11 a.m., an unidentified man in a maroon, Isuzu pickup passed authorities on Mississippi 29, south of New Augusta. Alfred Baria Jr. said his dad’s pickup backfires loudly every time someone shifts gears and steps on the gas.
“There was no confirmation of actual gunshots”, Michel said.
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Eli Baylis/AP Investigators examine a maroon pickup truck matching the description of the shooting suspect’s vehicle outside Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Cente ron Tuesday.
