By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
Police are searching for a man who has been charged with threatening a motorist by pointing an assault-style rifle at him while driving on a Yukon street.
Yukon’s Dakota Shey Bunch, 28, was formally charged Aug. 6 in Canadian County District Court with feloniously pointing a firearm and intimidation of a witness. The defendant faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on both counts.
Prosecutors allege Bunch willfully pointed a firearm at the victim “for the purpose of threatening, either through physical injury or mental or emotional intimidation or for purposes of whimsy, humor or prank, or in anger or otherwise and for other than a lawful purpose, including an act of self-defense,” according to court documents.
Bunch allegedly tried to prevent two Norman residents who were witnesses to the crime “from testifying and/or producing a statement for law enforcement,” the documents show.
The felony charge stems from a June 25 incident in Yukon investigated by Yukon Police.
Before the call came out, Capt. Chase Norman heard what sounded like gunshots in the 2200 block of S Holly.
Sgt. Dustin Biggs was driving through the area when police dispatchers advised an occupant of a red Chevrolet pickup truck had pointed a weapon at the victim.
The victim told Sgt. Biggs he was driving east on Vandament in an Amerigas propane truck when a red Chevy Silverado truck came out of the Walgreen’s parking lot into his lane, according to a Yukon police report.
The Blanchard resident looked at the truck occupied by two males and “realized they were pointing an AR-15 style rifle with a scope at him,” the officer wrote in the incident report.
The victim slammed on his brakes and the Chevy truck continued before turning onto S. 1st Street headed north.
After the incident was reported, another officer went to the nearby Walgreen’s store and viewed video footage of the truck.
YPD detectives quickly placed information about the suspect vehicle on social media. Police searched but could not find the pickup.
ALLEGED SHOOTER IDENTIFIED
On June 28, anonymous callers contacted Det. Sgt. Dave Carroll to share the name of the Chevy pickup owner – Bunch.
Over the next several days, Yukon police spoke with several witnesses and identified him as the alleged shooter.
One witness who was with the defendant during the Aug. 25 incident said Bunch had
“pulled out an assault style rifle from under the back seat” of the pickup and leaned out the window before “shooting off several rounds at signs” on Interstate 40, according to an arrest warrant affidavit signed by Det. Carroll.
After they exited the highway, the witness told the investigator he saw a truck pulling onto Garth Brooks Boulevard and saw Bunch point the rifle at the driver. They reportedly pulled into the Walgreens parking lot and an argument ensued.
A few days after the incident was reported on social media and the news, witnesses allegedly told investigators they received threatening phone calls from the defendant if they spoke to police about what occurred.
One witness claimed Bunch threatened to have her mother’s house “burned to the ground,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
The detective learned another witness later had his back window shot out in Oklahoma City by a relative of the defendant, the document indicates.
Witnesses told investigators that Bunch was supposedly “hiding out” in Crescent, the rifle may have been buried “on family land” in Broken Bow and the truck was at an unknown auto dealership, according to the court affidavit.
A witness notified Det. Carroll in mid-July that her mother’s house caught on fire a few days earlier. The witness said she was scared so the investigator advised her to report this to the District Attorney’s office.
