Toppenish man charged in shooting incident

by Mark Morey
Yakima Herald-Republic

A 79-year-old Toppenish man was charged Thursday with threatening his neighbors with a gun because he said someone shot his dog earlier this week.

Joseph Eli Charron was arraigned on three counts of first-degree assault and one count of third-degree assault in Yakima County Superior Court.

An affidavit filed by the Yakima County Sheriff's Office states Charron went over to his neighbor's home in the 2000 block of McDonald Road about 8:30 a.m. Monday while armed with a handgun. He accused the neighbor of shooting his dog.

The affidavit states Charron tore the victim's cell phone out of his hand and threw it on the ground, struck him several times, fired one round into the air and then pointed the gun at the victim and two other men who were with him. Charron threatened to shoot the victim and the victim's dog as well, the affidavit states. He then left the scene and deputies were called to the area.

When they arrived at Charron's house, deputies said, he refused to show them his hands at first and told them to shoot him. A sergeant used his Taser stun gun on Charron to bring him to the ground and said he had to shock him twice afterward to get him to comply.

Even after Charron was struck by the Taser charge, deputies said, he refused to cooperate and stomped on the sergeant's foot instead of getting into the patrol car when asked.

Deputies found a Glock pistol in Charron's kitchen freezer and recovered a bullet shell from the scene where witnesses said he had fired one round into the air.

He is being held at the Yakima County jail on $100,000 bail.

 

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