Man accused of opening fire on PR woman

SANDPOINT — A Priest River man was arrested on Monday night for allegedly opening fire on a woman.

Jack Leroy Darden is charged with aggravated assault, unlawfully discharging a firearm at a dwelling and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Darden, 39, made an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court on Tuesday via video link from the county jail. Judge Debra Heise set Darden’s bail at $60,000 and appointed a public defender to represent him, court records show.

A sheriff’s deputy was summoned to a residence in the 800 block of Old Priest River Road  after dispatch received a report of a weapons offense at 8:15 p.m. A woman told the deputy she walked down to her mailbox at the foot of her driveway and saw Darden parked in his pickup truck in an adjacent driveway.

The woman walked back to her home and heard the pickup engine start and the engine rev several times. When she turned around, the pickup was in her driveway and she saw Darden point a weapon out the window and open fire.

The woman said a projectile whizzed by her head and struck her home, the affidavit said. When Darden drove off, a second shot was fired, the woman told Deputy Tim Reynolds.

While investigating the incident, Reynolds discovered broken mirror glass and a piece of rubber seal in the driveway, the affidavit said. Darden returned to the scene and was immediately arrested.

A loaded .410 shotgun was found in the pickup and the driver’s side mirror appeared to be damaged by gunfire, according to the affidavit. The passenger-side mirror had the same type of rubber seal found in the driveway.

An oblong bullet hole was found in the home’s snow roof and Reynolds said the trajectory of the .410 slug appeared to have missed the woman’s head by “mere inches.”

Reynolds said in the affidavit that the bullet keyholed when it was fired, meaning it tumbled end over end during its flight. Had the projectile not keyholed, it would have likely struck the woman in the head, Reynolds said.

A motive for the shooting is unclear, according to court documents.

Darden has a criminal history that includes aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery, delivery of controlled substance and other offenses, court documents indicate.