Jasper County Sheriff Mitchel Newman on Tuesday apologized for an incident that occurred on Monday evening. Newman’s statement was in response to a claim made by a caller to the Tuesday morning “Talk of the Town” program on KJAS.
The caller claimed that there was an incident in the Rock Hill Community just south of Jasper on Monday evening in which it was reported that a man had threatened several people with a gun and it took a deputy over 30 minutes to respond.
Newman said unfortunately the statements made by the caller were true. However, Newman said that three different factors were involved. He said his deputies were assisting firemen with the lightning strikes that occurred in the northwest end of the county setting the woods on fire in 7 different locations.
Newman went on to say that at almost the same time that the incident was reported at Rock Hill, there was a similar situation that was reported on Farm to Market Road 252 where it was also reported that someone was threatening people with a gun. Newman said one of the officers that was dispatched believed the calls were at the same location and went to the wrong address.
According to Newman, deputies ended up responding to both calls but were late in response to the call in Rock Hill and that there was no excuse.
Newman said the bottom line was that no one was injured and that he and others were in the process of obtaining warrants that arrests would most likely soon be filed. However, he declined to release any names or additional information pending formal charges and arraignment.
Newman said “Our goal is to take care of the people of Jasper County but sometimes we mess up, but we try to learn from our mistakes and correct them.”