Two Arkansas men were arrested this week for taking turns shooting each other with a semi-automatic rifle while wearing a bulletproof vest.
50-year-old Charles Eugene Ferris was admitted to a Benton County hospital late last Sunday with a red spot on his upper chest. Doctors there notified police about the suspicious wound and in an interview with a deputy from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, the man tried to come up with a plausible explanation. He claimed that an “asset” had paid him $200 for protection and after they met with a third individual at around 10 p.m. on Sunday, a gunfight ensued. The 50-year-old told police that he had been shot several times and returned fire before escaping in a car. Luckily, he had been wearing a bulletproof vest, but the asset brought him to the hospital anyway. Unfortunately, Ferris forgot to tell his wife his version of the story, so she spilled the beans on what really happened.
Photo: SimmeD/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
According to Leslie Ferris, her husband Charles and his friend Christopher Hicks, age 36, had been drinking with Charles Hicks, 36, outside their home when gunfire erupted. She didn’t know the details, but after being confronted by investigators, Charles Ferris changed his story.
In an affidavit obtained by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Ferris admitted that he and Hicks had been drinking when they decided to play around with a bulletproof vest. He put on the vest and asked his neighbor to shoot him with a .22mm semi-automatic rifle. Hicks agreed and shot him in the chest, which is how he got that red spot that doctors found suspicious.
“Pissed-off” by the pain caused by the gun shot, Ferris grabbed the rifle and proceeded to unload the clip into his friend, who had put on the bulletproof vest. He shot him in the back five times, but by some miracle none of the bullets pierced the vest.
One of Ferris’ neighbors told 5News that the man and his friends regularly shoot guns outside his home and that he fears for her children’s safety.
“I have three kids, two of them still live at home here… right next to them. They shoot as many as 50 to 100 rounds at a time. I just want to make sure it’s not just left hanging, no charges,” the concerned man said. “There has to be something done about it. If nothing is done it could escalate into someone getting seriously injured. Maybe somebody that is not on their property.”
The gun-loving neighbors were arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault, but later released on $5,000 bond. They face charges of aggravated assault and face up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. They are scheduled to appear in a Benton County court on may 13.
