By BOB GIBBINS
A Welling man who fired a gun at a longtime Tahlequah police officer last October was ordered held for trial Monday.
Freddie Chadwell Jr., 41, was bound over for trial on charges of shooting with intent to kill and discharging a firearm into a dwelling. He also faces a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct with a firearm.
Associate District Judge Mark Dobbins ruled Assistant District Attorney David Pierce presented sufficient probable cause to hold Chadwell, who appeared in court in a jail-issued orange jump suit and in a wheelchair.
Sgt. Steve Young, one of the state’s witnesses, had just started his patrol duties Oct. 12 when Chadwell shot at him. A round from a .44-caliber magnum penetrated the driver’s side door of Young’s police vehicle and lodged in the dashboard.
Young returned fire with his service weapon.
No one was hit by the gunfire.
Chadwell has been incarcerated since the incident. Two sawed-off firearms were recovered from his home after the shooting.
Court records also indicate Chadwell has been to the Oklahoma Forensic Center for a competency evaluation. Jennifer O’Daniel has been appointed to represent him.
Shooting with intent to kill carries a possible life prison sentence; discharging a firearm into a dwelling is punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
