PROVO, Utah, March 22, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Seven felony charges have been filed against a 70-year-old Eagle Mountain man for firing what turned out to be a paintball gun at teens he said were “doorbell ditching” him.
Michael Eugene Roberts is scheduled for an April 11 arraignment in Provo’s 4th District Court on six counts of third-degree felony aggravated assault.
He’s also charged with one count of criminal mischief in the March 10 incident, elevated to a third-degree felony because of the more than $1,500 damage alleged to the victims’ vehicle in the shooting.
Utah County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a reported weapons offense the night of March 10 where six teenagers said a male had walked out on his porch and fired a weapon at the car they were in across the street, according to Roberts’ charging documents. The victims told officers they thought at first it was a real gun but it could have been an airsoft gun.
“The suspect was taken into custody at his home at gunpoint due to the nature of the call and the unknown of the type of weapon that was used.”
After Miranda, Roberts “stated that for weeks juveniles have been coming to his house on the weekends and doorbell ditching his residence.”
The car he admitted firing his paintball gun at resembled the one he saw “when he was doorbell ditched,” according to a probable cause affidavit. He said he did not aim at the juveniles.
The paintball rounds in the gun’s magazine matched the dents in the side of the vehicle as well as a spent round found by the vehicle. Roberts was booked into the Utah County Jail that night on suspicion of the seven felonies prosecutors eventually charged. He was released the next morning on $2,500 bail.
