By Krystal J. Carman
August 11, 2009 — A Talala man was arrested Sunday for allegedly pointing an air soft pistol at deputies.
Joe Voris, 39, is facing three counts of felony assault with a dangerous weapon and misdemeanor counts of public intoxication and resisting an officer. He is currently being housed in the Rogers County Jail.
Rogers County Sheriff’s officials say deputies responded to a report of a man allegedly pointing a gun at an unknown person and making threats. With no luck locating the suspect — Voris — deputies issued a “be on look out” for Voris and again attempted to locate him, unsuccessfully.
About 7 p.m. Sunday, a call reported Voris had returned to his home, 7800 S. 4050 Rd. in Talala, and was intoxicated.
Upon arriving on scene, Voris allegedly produced a handgun and even though he was repeatedly ordered to drop the gun, he refused, according to officials, and allegedly told deputies to “shoot (him).” Voris reportedly pointed the gun in the direction of the deputies and then “waived it around,” reports state.
“Voris refused to obey our commands and advised us to stay away from him,” an affidavit from Deputy Joe Batt states. “Voris removed the magazine from the handgun and held it in the air. Voris retrieved the magazine and placed it back into the handgun. Voris then pulled the slide on the handgun as if he had placed an ammunition round into the chamber.”
According to reports, Voris did throw the gun toward the patrol cars only after being ordered repeatedly to drop the weapon. Once the weapon was on the ground, officials say a struggle ensued between the deputies and Voris ending with the deputies spraying Voris with pepper spray. The three deputies were treated by ambulance personnel on scene for unintentional pepper spray in their faces.
Deputies discovered the gun was an air soft pistol after it was thrown onto the ground, according to reports. “The air soft pistol broke into several pieces when Voris had thrown it. I observed that the air soft pistol had no orange painting near the end of the slide,” Batt’s affidavit states.
Voris was also treated for exposure to pepper spray.
