Crane Prairie fishing feud leads to gunfire, SWAT callout; 2 shots fired at DCSO drone, Bend man arrested

La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) – A fishing feud led to gunfire, an armored vehicle and SWAT team call-out and a Bend man’s arrest on the shores of Crane Prairie Reservoir Thursday evening. He’s also accused of firing two shots at a Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office drone, while nearby campers were warned of what was happening.

Deputies were dispatched around 5:30 p.m. to a reported weapons offenses near the Rock Creek Campground at the reservoir west of La Pine, Sergeant Jason Wall said.

Initial reports indicated three men were fishing from a boat close to the shoreline when campers at a nearby camp began screaming at the fishermen in the boat, claiming the boat was going to run over their fishing lines, Wall said.

One of the fishermen on the shore armed himself with a long rifle and fired a round “in the general vicinity of the fishermen in the boat,” Wall said in a news release.

“The fishermen in the boat, fearing for their lives, drove the boat to the south end of the reservoir and contacted Deschutes County 911,” Wall said. They were contacted on the Cascade Lakes Highway and were uninjured, the spokesman said.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the area and deployed a drone for a view of the camp from which the shot was fired. The sheriff’s office armored rescue vehicle was brought to the scene, along with a small contingent of SWAT team members to contact and take the 39-year-old suspect into custody.

During the incident, the suspect allegedly fired two shots as he tried to shoot down the sheriff's office drone.

All surrounding camps and campers were contacted, Wall said, “to ensure their safety and determine if they had been affected by the wanton shooting of a firearm in the general vicinity.”

No one was injured during the incident. The suspect was taken to the county jail in Bend and booked on two counts of unlawful use of a firearm, three counts each of reckless endangering of another person and menacing, and one count of disorderly conduct.