DRW Man Arrested After Gunshots Fired in Air

A Deschutes River Woods resident was arrested Sunday, accused of firing three gunshots into the air, after authorities were called to the scene by neighbors reporting a screaming man armed with a rifle in a front yard.

Deschutes County sheriff?s deputies were dispatched around 3:25 p.m. to 60067 Minnetonka Lane on reports of a man armed with a rifle who was screaming, said sheriff?s Sgt. Troy Gotchy.

The reporting homeowner said the man was yelling at some unknown people, and she fled in her vehicle, Gotchy said.

While deputies responded, 911 received several more calls from neighbors advising they had heard gunshots, along with the man screaming, the sergeant said. The callers advised the man was in a front yard with a scoped rifle.

When sheriff?s deputies, Oregon State Police troopers and Bend police arrived, they confronted the man, later identified as Steven Lee Hartford, 59, who lives at that address, and ordered him to drop the gun, Gotchy said.

Hartford complied with those orders and was taken into custody at the scene, Gotchy said.

Officers determined Hartford and the homeowner were the only two people at the house, and that Hartford allegedly fired three shots into the air from a .22 rifle. No one was injured, Gotchy added.

Hartford was taken to St. Charles Medical Center-Bend for an evaluation, then to the Deschutes County Jail, where he remained held Monday on $12,500 bail, facing three counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of felon in possession of a firearm.