A suspect who was arrested by a Wellston police officer for driving while under the influence of intoxicating alcohol, reportedly pulled a gun and attempted to shoot a Lincoln County Sheriff’s jailer who was patting him down.
Jerry Louis Lorenz, 50, of Jones, who was transported to the Lincoln County jail after he reportedly was involved in single-vehicle collision, now faces three felonies and two misdemeanor charges.
Formal charges were filed in Lincoln County District Court on Monday against Lorenz. He made his initial appearance on Monday before Associate District Judge Sheila Kirk.
She had previously set his bond at $92,000 and has scheduled his pre-preliminary hearing for Sep. 26.
Sergeant Aaron Bennett, Public Information Officer with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said that Lorenz was brought to the Lincoln County Jail on suspicion of DUI at 7:29 p.m. on Sep. 4 by a Wellston Police Officer.
Bennett noted that while Lorenz was being booked in, he was being searched. “Anytime a suspect is brought to the jail, typically they have already been searched. We always take all of their contents, everything from them, and hold onto their property until they are released,” he explained.
“Our jailer, Jonathan McDade, started searching him and Lorenz retrieved a .22 magnum North American mini-revolver from his right front pocket and pointed it at McDade’s head and neck area and pulled the trigger multiple times,” Bennett said.
“When presented with danger, your fight or flight instincts kick in and Mc-Dade was in it from the first second. He was fighting like his life depended on it which it did,” Bennett emphasized.
He said the pistol was eventually taken from Lorenz and he was booked into jail. “At no time was the general public in any kind of danger nor were any of the other inmates,” Bennett stressed.
Bennett further explained, “The Lincoln County Jail does have a policy to prevent these kinds of incidents from happening and we will be assembling a review board to see what happened and to prevent it from happening in the future.”
The charges Lorenz faces include assault with a dangerous weapon or in the alternative attempt to kill, bringing contraband (weapons) into a jail/penal institution. Those are all felonies.
He also is charged with attempted escape from arrest or detention and driving while under the influence of alcohol, both misdemeanors.
He is charged in Count 1 of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon accusing him on Sep. 4 this year of assaulting McDade with a .22 caliber pistol with intent do harm him.
The alternative, any other attempt to kill, charges him with attempting to kill McDade by pulling the hammer on his firearm while pointed at the victim with the intent to cause him death.
Count 3 accuses Lorenz of bringing contraband, specifically a gun, into the jail without authority to do so.
In Count 4, he is charged with attempting to escape after he was lawfully arrested or detained by McDade and Wellston Officer Casper Vinson.
The fifth count is for DUI, operating a motor vehicle on Highway 66 in Wellston while he was under the influence of alcohol.