Man allegedly pointed gun at boys playing ball
A Butler man is behind bars on $200,000 bond after city police said he pointed a handgun at six young boys.
Police arrested Scott B. Spahn, 49, following the incident shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday at his Fourth Avenue home. No one was injured.
The alleged altercation may have been sparked over the children accidentally kicking a ball into a neighbor's yard.
On-call District Judge Wayne Seibel arraigned Spahn on six felony charges of aggravated assault and six misdemeanor counts each of terroristic threats and reckless endangerment.
Seibel initially set bond at $20,000. But at a bail hearing Friday before District Judge William Fullerton of Butler, bond was increased to $200,000, authorities said, due to concerns over public safety.
The boys, ages 10 to 12, told police that they were in the street kicking a ball in front of two houses, according to charging documents. One of the kicks eventually went astray and ended in a neighbor's yard.
The neighbor at the time was reportedly with Spahn on the defendant's porch, police said. The neighbor went over and picked up the ball and kept it. Spahn provided a similar account, up to that point.
The children retrieved another ball and resumed playing on the street. They recounted that Spahn approached them, documents said, telling them, “If the ball comes on my porch, I'm keeping it.”
The defendant, the youths said, was holding a can of beer in one hand and a white and blue stripped flannel shirt in the other hand.
Later, while playing, Spahn allegedly “unwrapped a handgun from the shirt and pointed it at all of (the boys),” documents said.
They said they were scared, ran inside and called 911.
They described the gun as being a black revolver and having a long barrel.
Police said when they spoke to Spahn, they smelled alcohol on his breath. He did not have a gun on him.
Officers later obtained a search warrant for the defendant's house, police said, and turned up a black Ruger .44-caliber revolver that was wrapped in a white and blue stripped flannel shirt.
Spahn's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7 at Fullerton's office. Online court records did not list an attorney for the defendant.
