DCSO: Diesel mistake trips up CRR shot-fired suspect

A Washington state man allegedly pointed a gun at his stepfather at Crooked River Ranch early Saturday, threatened to shoot him and fired a shot in the air, then fled the scene, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said. A search ended with his arrest after he stole some diesel fuel and put it in his gas-powered car, causing it to stop running, they added.

Deputies were dispatched shortly before 5 a.m. to a reported domestic dispute on Dove Road in Crooked River Ranch, Sgt. Troy Gotchy said.

The man who called 911 dispatch advised that his stepson, Jeremy Hotha Thomas, 34, of Shoreline, Washington, was at his home threatening to shoot him. Gotchy said. The man said Thomas’ girlfriend, who was also there, told him Thomas had a gun but she didn’t know where it was.

The caller then advised that Thomas had the gun out and was pointing it at him. Gotchy said the caller ran into the house and advised dispatchers Thomas was firing the gun. As it turned out, one shot was fired into the air, the sergeant added.

Thomas and his girlfriend had left the house in their car with their 3-year-old child before deputies arrived. Gotchy said several deputies contacted the stepfather while others, including Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies and Oregon State Police, searched the area for Thomas and his 2017 Chevrolet Cruze hatchback, Gotchy said.

Just before 8 a.m., an OSP trooper learned a tow company was called by a woman reporting a dead battery in her car on Lower Bridge Road, west of Holmes Road.

Deputies and troopers responded and found Thomas’ car along the road. A high-risk (guns drawn) stop was conducted, and Thomas was arrested without incident. His girlfriend and child were unhurt, Gotchy said, and a loaded handgun was found in the car.

Gotchy said deputies learned Thomas was running out of gas, so he stopped on Lower Bridge, entered an unlocked barn, stole a gas can and filled it with diesel fuel from a large fuel tank on the property, then put that fuel in his car, which runs on unleaded gas. That – and not a dead battery – caused the car to stop running, Gotchy said.

Thomas was taken to the county jail in Bend and booked on charges of pointing a firearm at another, unlawful use of a weapon, being a felon in possession of a firearm, second-degree burglary and third-degree theft. He was held on $36,000 bail.

” Drugs may have been a factor in this incident, ” Gotchy wrote in a news release. Redmond and Bend police officers also assisted in the case, he said.