by April Scheinoha
Reporter
A Thief River Falls man has been charged with four felony offenses after he allegedly pointed a gun at two family members early Monday morning.
Zachary Matthew Daniels, 35, has been charged in Pennington County District Court with two felony counts of second degree assault, two felony counts of threats of violence, and two misdemeanor counts of domestic assault. Daniels also has charges pending for driving while impaired and refusal to submit to an alcohol-level test in a separate, related case. He was arrested without incident in rural Pennington County a short time after the assaults were reported.
After his arrest, Daniels said he didn’t know what was occurring, and he declined to make a statement to law enforcement, according to the complaint.
The charges stemmed from a 911 call Monday at about 4:02 a.m. in the 2000 block of Washington Ave., according to the complaint. A woman allegedly said her husband, Daniels, had woken her up by holding a 9-mm pistol to her head. She said Daniels, who was intoxicated, asked her if she was planning to lock him out of the house. The woman then heard a click. Daniels soon left the bedroom, and she found him lying on a couch. The woman asked him if he had put a pistol to her head.
Around the same time, their son told her that Daniels had also pointed a gun at his face in the boy’s bedroom and then Daniels had gone back upstairs.
The woman ordered Daniels to leave, and she called 911. He told the woman and boy to go to hell and said they had earlier locked him out of the house. Daniels then left.
The gun was allegedly later found with another full magazine lying next to it.
The woman said that Daniels had been consuming alcohol earlier at a neighbor’s house. Hours before the incident, she tried to get him to come home. Daniels refused. About three-and-a-half hours later, he arrived home, pounding on a door and awakening their daughter. The woman then let him into the home, where the incident occurred.
A police sergeant soon discovered tire tracks, indicating that Daniels had hit a snowbank across the street from the house after exiting the property.
The woman believed Daniels was going to his grandmother’s home in the 13600 block of 150th Ave. N.E., according to the complaint and the sheriff’s office report. The sheriff’s office found him at that location in his vehicle. Daniels was then arrested without incident.