BEDFORD – Two men were arrested when Bedford Police officers responded to the 1910 block of 17th Street at 11:09 p.m. on Saturday, September 17th after a report of a male walking in backyards while possessing a firearm.
Officers detained Evan Wood, 32, of Bedford, who was found outside of his residence, and 30-year-old Joshua Strange, of Scottsburg, who was inside the home.
Evan told officers he thought someone was breaking into his house and admitted to carrying a rifle, but put it back inside when officers arrived.
A neighbor told police that Wood had come on her front porch while she was watering her plants and was armed with a gun. He then asked her for her phone number.
The neighbor told police she “was terrified and she did not want to make any sudden movements during her encounter with Wood.
Wood told the woman that a male and others had broken into his home. He said one of the males had come to his window and was looking inside and he was going to “shoot through the window”. She stated, “obviously he’s seeing people.”
Strange told police he did not see anyone harassing Wood.
In the living room, police found a black Armalite rifle laying on the couch, and noticed that there were several miscellaneous items strung out across the residence.
Strange told police Wood was carrying the rifle around inside the home. He did tell police a few days ago someone had beat on Wood’s windows messing with him.
Strange was then asked if there were any drugs in the house and he said, “not that I’m aware of, and there ain’t nothing in this house that belongs to me.”
Wood told police someone was breaking into his home, however, he was unsure how they were getting in. He told police that “someone was crawling inside the ductwork in the house”. Wood then provided the officer with a video of what, he said appeared to be a person in the ductwork. Officers said there was no person in the video footage. Police say, Wood appeared to be experiencing paranoia and hallucinations.
Wood has a history of meth use and told officers he had injected meth last Tuesday. He told police he wasn’t sleeping well and had only slept about 4 hours.
Wood then told police there “shouldn’t be” any meth in the home.
Wood then told police he had a woman at the home about a month ago and she was “strung out bad” and she left a “loaded rig’ in a nightstand in one of the bedrooms. A rig is the slang term for a syringe that is commonly used to inject controlled substances such as meth.
Wood then admitted that he didn’t clean out all of her stuff including syringes and there may be some in the trash.
Wood denied permission for officers to search the home.
Officers took the necessary steps to ensure there was no one else inside of the home who could destroy evidence. During that process officers found in plan view a metal cap containing a white powdery substance in the bedroom. This later tested positive for meth.
Officers found a red Dodge Ram 2500 pickup parked on the west side of the home in the driveway. A Lawrence County canine alerted officers to possible drugs in the vehicle.
Judge Robert Cline signed a search warrant for the home and vehicle.
Officers found an AR-15 rifle, a bag of 9mm ammo, a box of 450 Bushmaster ammo, two digital scales with meth residue, a glass pipe containing meth residue, a package of syringes, and a Winchester Model 1300 20-gauge shotgun. An AM-15 multi-caliber gun, a SKS rifle, a Rohm 28 special, several holsters and magazines and a Glenfield Model 60 with numerous amounts of ammunition were also found.
Officers found a glass smoking device, digital scales, packages of syringes, and two upper receivers for weapons inside the truck.
The rifle on the couch contained a loaded magazine and one in the chamber.
Both men were detained.
Strange was uncooperative and resisted arrest while he was placed in the police vehicle. Strange admitted to giving the officers a false identification earlier and finally gave the officer his true identity.
Wood faces charges of possession of meth with a firearm, unlawful possession of a syringe, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Strange faces charges of possession of meth, unlawful possession of a syringe, providing false information to a government official, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting arrest by force, and wanted on a warrant in Washington County.
