Man accused of firing at least 20 shots outside his Scio Township home
A Scio Township man remains jailed on a $250,000 cash bond after investigators said he fired at least 20 shots Friday night outside his home before police talked him into putting his gun down.
David Olds Schupp Jr., 48, was arraigned Sunday morning at the Washtenaw County Jail on a charge of discharging a firearm at a building and two counts of reckless use of firearms.
Washtenaw County sheriff's deputies and Michigan State Police troopers responded to Schupp's home on Baker Heights Court about 11 p.m. after receiving multiple reports of shots fired, deputies said.
When police arrived, Schupp was holding a gun, sheriff's department spokesman Derrick Jackson said. Officers identified themselves and convinced Schupp to put it down, Jackson said.
Investigators found that Schupp fired at least 20 shots, including into the side of his house and into a propane tank, Jackson said. Deputies said they seized a handgun and two long guns. Jackson said it's unclear why Schupp started firing shots.
Prior to appearing in court, Schupp was taken to University of Michigan Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
During the arraignment, Schupp told Magistrate Thomas Truesdell that he can afford an attorney. Schupp said he has no felony convictions or pending charges.
Truesdell said he considered Schupp an "extreme danger" to the community and set the $250,000 cash bond. Schupp will be required to turn over any other weapons he has as the case is pending.
If convicted of discharging a firearm at a dwelling, Schupp faces up to four years in prison. He is scheduled to return to court Sept. 20 for a preliminary hearing.
Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2527 and email at leehiggins@annarbor.com.
Comments
Bob Bethune
Wed, Sep 14, 2011 : 5:04 p.m.
Congratulations to the police officers who managed to handle this situation without either the officers or the shooter getting hurt or killed. I can only imagine how incredibly touchy that situation was! Just one wrong move on either side....
tinkerbell
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 5:20 p.m.
Those bullets don't care if you're a gun lover or a gun hater.
OLDTIMER3
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 12:08 p.m.
Safety zones are all areas within 150 yards (450 feet) of an occupied building, house, cabin, or any barn or other building used in a farm operation. No person, including archery and crossbow hunters, may hunt or discharge a firearm, crossbow or bow in a safety zone, or shoot at any wild animal or wild bird within a safety zone, without the written permission of the owner or occupant of such safety zone. The safety zone applies to hunting only. It does not apply to indoor or outdoor shooting ranges, target shooting, law enforcement activities or the discharge of firearms, crossbows or bows for any non-hunting purpose. This safety zone doesn't include the owner or invited guest. But there are diffent rules in different townships and city limits.
KJMClark
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 10:05 a.m.
Can you imagine being one of the officers responding to that? You just have to hope someone troubled enough to shoot at their house is still wise enough to not point the gun at the police. But they had to stop him, that street is practically in Dexter. Just about any direction the guy is pointing the gun is a problem. There are apartment buildings just north of some of the houses. They look like expensive houses too.
RJA
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 5:05 a.m.
@ Marilyn, so true and great job by law enforcement. They put their lives on the line everyday, and don't get enough pay.
Joe Kidd
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 11:19 p.m.
My guess on this one: Divorce. If you don't shoot it full of holes you get a chain saw and cut it in half.
KJMClark
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 10:10 a.m.
Or foreclosure. Maybe with unemployment, maybe with divorce too. Lousy economies breed all sorts of reasons.
EyeHeartA2
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 11:05 p.m.
@ab Here you go: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/69zlqk7" rel='nofollow'>http://tinyurl.com/69zlqk7</a> btw, it is 150 yards.
EyeHeartA2
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 3:50 a.m.
Ahhh. Very good. I stand corrected. However I couldn't find anything other than the fireworks reference in the pdf file, so maybe it is ill defined for just plain shooting? I assume it is not OK to aim at a house though.
5c0++ H4d13y
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 2:26 a.m.
The full text says it applies to hunting only. So much so they spell out what it does not apply to. "Safety zones are all areas within 150 yards (450 feet) of an occupied building, house, cabin, or any barn or other building used in a farm operation. No person, including archery and crossbow hunters, may hunt or discharge a firearm, crossbow or bow in a safety zone, or shoot at any wild animal or wild bird within a safety zone, without the written permission of the owner or occupant of such safety zone. The safety zone applies to hunting only. It does not apply to indoor or outdoor shooting ranges, target shooting, law enforcement activities or the discharge of firearms, crossbows or bows for any non-hunting purpose."
EyeHeartA2
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 1:07 a.m.
Sorry 5c0++ H4d13y; I stand by my original post, an excerpt of which is below: "Safety zones are all areas within 150 yards (450 feet) of an occupied building, house, cabin, or any barn or other building used in a farm operation. No person, including archery and crossbow hunters, may hunt OR discharge a firearm." With the "OR discharge a firearm" being very important. Good link though. I discovered you can't keep less than 100 lbs of class C fireworks within 50 feet of an inhabited building. Bet they could fill the jails with that one on the Fourth of July. Take care. BTW, I still golf like crap.
Marilyn Wilkie
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 1:07 a.m.
I was thinking no shooting allowed within 500 ft. of a building.
5c0++ H4d13y
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 12:41 a.m.
Of course that's not really the whole answer, right? That only applied to hunting. I'm going to guess our troubled friend was not hunting. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3dvmoug" rel='nofollow'>http://tinyurl.com/3dvmoug</a>
Grimey
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 10:44 p.m.
Did Mr. Shupp test positive for drugs or alcohol? Were the guns registered to Mr. Shupp? Has Mr. Shupp undergone a psychiatric evaluation? Was the home occupied while he was shooting at it?
Grimey
Thu, Sep 15, 2011 : 8:19 a.m.
Thanks, tdw. Just wondering about "Deputies said they seized a handgun...", if it was registered to Mr. Shupp.
tdw
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 11:13 a.m.
Only handguns need to be registered in Michigan.And there are only about 3 or 4 other states that require that
ab
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 9:59 p.m.
As someone relatively new to the area, what are the rules about shooting on your own property? Obviously, firing at a house and propane tank would be off limits, but what if your property backs up to a corn field, or if you own multiple acres?
Joe Kidd
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 11:17 p.m.
I guess it depends on where you live and perhaps close proximity of other homes. And there are some other homes on his street, some businesses in the area. As I type this out my window I am hearing shots. Very common out here. Maybe hunters sighting in their scopes and practicing for seasons coming up.
Major
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 9:53 p.m.
A distressed person, sad really. The gun part is irrelevant, he would have "gone off" in another way without one. Thankfully no one was hurt.
KJMClark
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 10:16 a.m.
Yeah, actually the gun part is relevant because the bullets don't necessarily stop at his property line. If he'd gone after the place with a baseball bat it wouldn't have been so dangerous, but a lot of modern houses aren't much more than drywall and insulation with a few studs put in to hold it all up. They don't say which gun he was using. If he was shooting a long gun, and it was a rifle, some of those bullets might well have gone through the house and just kept going. There are a good number of people around that street that might not have wanted bullets flying around.
Grimey
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 7:38 a.m.
@ Major; Glad to see you agree that Mr. Shupp shouldn't own a gun, but you're disagreeing that firing 20 rounds at a residence and a propane tank is relevant? Firing a gun is not relevant? A person being "despondent" doesn't excuse the reckless use of a firearm. Being dismissive and assuming this person would have done something just as dangerous without a firearm doesn't help responsible gun owners, it hurts them, especially when it's a case where a firearm is discharged. 20 times.
Major
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 12:24 a.m.
Well this responsible gun owner didn't say that now did I! My point was, this is obviously a despondent person, who is not in control and acting out, or screaming for help. His manner of doing so, sans guns, would have been just as dramatic...trust me. Your last 10 words I'm 100% in agreement with!
Grimey
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 10:31 p.m.
"The gun part is irrelevant"?!? Any responsible gun owner would say firing 20 rounds at a residence and a propane tank is more that relevant, and that, following a guilty verdict, Mr. Shupp should be banned from ever owning a firearm.
Marilyn Wilkie
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 9:33 p.m.
Kudos to the law enforcement officers who handled this in a very professional manner and brought it to a safe conclusion. They never know what they will find on these calls or whether they will leave alive.
Smart Logic
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 9:25 p.m.
I wish he had a good explanation but it appears he does not. Before the gun hater crowd arrives, realize this person is in a very small minority that misuses firearms. Somehow the majority of us gun owners manage to abide by the law.
AstroJetson
Tue, Sep 13, 2011 : 12:16 a.m.
Maybe he had rats in the house...
Smart Logic
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 11:40 p.m.
Grimey, we all know there is no excuse for it. That's simply a way of saying I wish he had thought it over before doing something that dumb.
Joe Kidd
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 11:13 p.m.
Target practice. Some folks need big targets.
Grimey
Mon, Sep 12, 2011 : 10:37 p.m.
For the sake of argument, what kind of "good explanation" could their possibly be for shooting up your own house?