these girls are as pure and innocent as the driven snow, and I am a brain surgeon
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/022808/news_2008022800152.shtml
Sheriff: Man allegedly shot at teens in 2006
Oconee sheriff re-examines claims after Bogart slaying
By Joe Johnson |
[email protected] | Story updated at 12:09 AM on Thursday, February 28, 2008
Oconee County investigators are taking a fresh look at 2-year-old allegations a Bogart man fired a gun at a group of teens, after he shot and killed a motorcyclist in front of his house this week.
Authorities didn't charge Richard "Ricky" Harold Gear at the time because they couldn't prove he fired a gun, and witnesses were "less than truthful" about what happened, Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry said Wednesday.
The sheriff's office will reinvestigate that shooting in light of Gear's claim that he acted in self-defense when he shot 21-year-old Bryan Andrew "B.J." Mough on Monday after Mough argued with Gear's daughters in traffic and followed them home.
After deputies charged Gear with murder, residents called the sheriff's office to report other times Gear may have drawn a gun, Berry said.
"This case, like most cases, generates a lot of comments from the public," the sheriff said. "We're still working hard on it, and we're going to follow all leads to their logical conclusion."
Gear's daughters, 17 and 19, called their father Monday night to tell him that someone was following them; when they arrived home, Gear was waiting at the end of the driveway with a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol, Berry said.
Mough drove by the house, turned around, and Gear shot two or three times as the motorcycle made a second pass, according to Berry.
Mough was shot once in the back, the sheriff said.
MULTIMEDIA
PDF: See a copy of a police report filed following the alleged shooting in 2006. (Note: Witness names and narrative were redacted by the Oconee County Sheriff's Office):
View document (148k)
But Gear may have shot at people outside his house before, in 2006, according to Berry.
"Deputies responded to the incident (in 2006), but they could not substantiate that shots were fired at anyone or if any shots were fired at all," the sheriff said.
Gear denied he fired a gun, Berry said.
Investigators are tracking down witnesses to the earlier shooting, according to Berry, who said he wasn't sure whether proving Gear had fired a gun two years ago would impact the murder investigation.
"We're revisiting (Gear's) whole past history," Berry said. "That's our responsibility and obligation. (Mough's death) encouraged us to go back and interview people who may have had contact with the suspect in this case."
Berry wouldn't say more, and a deputy's report gave vague details.
Gear, who turned 46 Wednesday, called the sheriff's office the night of Feb. 25, 2006, to complain that trespassers were on his property at 155 Gear Road. The trespassers backed over a mailbox when Gear told them to leave, according to the report.
A deputy found the car nearby in Bogart, and one of the people inside said they left when someone shot at them, according to the report.
The deputy barred the teens from Gear's property, according to the report, and one of the teens promised to replace the damaged mailbox and post.
But the mother of one of the teens who lives nearby said she called the sheriff's office to report she heard gunshots and that her daughter and friends said Gear shot at them.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said five teens were arguing outside the Gear home when Gear came out with a gun.
"They were saying, 'Oh my God, oh my God, he shot at us,'" the woman said.
She told a deputy what had happened, but the deputy didn't take a statement because the information was secondhand.
An Oconee sheriff's investigator told the woman Thursday that he needed to interview her daughter about the 2006 shooting, the woman said.
Authorities charged Gear with murder Monday and did not find evidence he acted in self-defense, Berry said.
"The physical evidence we recovered from the scene and elsewhere doesn't reflect that Mough was the primary aggressor," Berry said. "There is no evidence he tried to hit Gear, and his motorcycle never went on Gear's property."
Investigators still don't know exactly what happened in the minutes leading up to Mough's death.
Gear's daughters and Mough apparently left the parking lot of Target, 3065 Atlanta Highway, about the same time Monday night, Berry said.
Tempers flared as they drove west toward Bogart.
Gear's daughters told investigators they made obscene gestures when Mough cut them off, and that Mough intentionally ran into their car after they crossed the Oconee County line. They called their father to say someone was following them, the sheriff said.
The motorcycle apparently did collide with the driver's side of the Gear sisters' car, Berry said, but investigators don't know which vehicle caused that contact.
Mough, who lived in the Lincoln Park subdivision north of Winder, worked at a Target store in Buford, according to a former girlfriend. He was hoping to transfer to the Athens Target and went to the store for an interview Monday, Brittany Williams said.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 022808
