LOCUST TOWNSHIP - A Catawissa area man was placed in Columbia County Prison Monday morning after he allegedly fired several shots outside his home before police took him into custody. No one was injured.
Locust Township Police charged Christopher H. Cooper, 22, of 1156 Numidia Drive, Catawissa, with several counts, including making terroristic threats and recklessly endangering another person after he fired a pistol into the woods while his girlfriend, Jennifer Beishline, was standing nearby.
According to court documents filed by Locust Township Police Patrolman Nicholas Thorpe, police were dispatched to Cooper's home at 11:04 p.m. Sunday after receiving a call from Beishline's sister, Katlyn Faust.
Faust told police Beishline was at Cooper's residence and Cooper had been screaming at her and then fired shots from a pistol.
After arriving at Cooper's home, police spoke to Beishline by telephone. She told police Cooper had been talking about suicide during an argument between the two, and then showed her an ammunition magazine for his mother's pistol and went outside.
A short time later, Beishline heard a single gunshot from the back yard. She rushed outside and found Cooper was unharmed, but holding a pistol.
Police said Beishline tried to calm Cooper down by sitting in a lawn chair and talking with him, but Cooper began screaming obscenities at her. Beishline said she just sat there because Cooper was holding the weapon.
Suddenly, Beishline told police, Cooper turned toward the fields behind the home and fired three more shots, and a casing struck Beishline in the arm. After he fired, Cooper allegedly turned to her and said, "I hope the cops show up, that way I don't have to do it myself."
Beishline said she then ran from the backyard and called Faust for a ride.
Police detained Cooper in the backyard. Cooper told police he fired an air rifle, not a pistol, in the fields, according to the report.
He also told police he often thought of suicide as a way to escape his problems and has been on medication for depression, police said.
Police found the pistol at Cooper's residence and his mother identified it as her weapon. A round was found in the magazine in the pistol. Cooper's mother told police she usually keeps the pistol and magazine separated.
Officers also found the spent casings near the lawn chair and it matched the ammunition found in the pistol.
In addition to the reckless endangerment and terroristic threat charges, Cooper was arrested on counts of disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. He was arraigned via video before Magisterial District Judge Russell Lawton, of Bloomsburg, and placed in Columbia County Prison on $25,000 straight bail. A preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for Thursday, June 27, before Magisterial District Judge Craig Long, of Catawissa.
Assisting at the scene were officers from the Catawissa and Montour Township Police departments.
The investigation continues.