Upon contacting the youths, according to the police report:
Upton took video and photos of the four juveniles "appearing to be suspicious to him and his neighbors, but doing nothing criminal."Whereupon said juveniles piled into a car to leave. At this point, the unnamed neighbor blocked their vehicle in from the front, while Mr. Upton blocked their vehicle in from behind. The juveniles piled back out of the car to confront the neighbor who'd blocked their passage, and Mr. Upton got out of his car and approached to get more video.
And then...
"Upon doing so, one of the juveniles approached the defendant in an aggressive manner with his hands clearly visible and nothing in them," the report said. "At that time the defendant drew a concealed handgun and did willfully and unlawfully use force against the juvenile."Upton fired three to five shots, hitting the sixteen year old in the leg twice.
Upton, formerly a Captain in the Nevada Air National Guard before his experiment in neighborhood policing, was arrested and booked on the charge of Battery with a deadly weapon. He was found guilty this past October and was just sentenced to up to six years in prison.
Dude lost his commission, is now a felon and a prohibited person, is out probably middlin' six figures in legal fees, and is staring at up to six years in the big house, all because he thought his carry permit was a Batman badge.
The part that gets me is that even after the kids got in their car to go, Batman and Robin decided to pass up an easy exit to the whole affair, and instead chose to escalate by blocking the car. In what universe was that a good idea?
.
