DOCUMENT: Crime

Cops: Jehovah's Witnesses Faced Bullet Barrage

Arkansas man fired 9mm at "Lolly Gaggin" women

Jehovah's Witness

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Jehovah's Witnesses

OCTOBER 1--Incensed that two Jehovah’s Witnesses approached him in the front yard of his home, an Arkansas man allegedly had his wife retrieve his 9mm handgun from the residence and then fired 19 rounds at the pair’s vehicle, police report.

John Baldwin, 35, was arrested for felony aggravated assault following the incident Saturday afternoon outside his Centerton home.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Baldwin became upset when Laura Goforth and Rachel Boshears began speaking with him on his front lawn. “Get your fucking ass off my property. I moved out here to get away from people like you,” Baldwin told the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Boshears, 55, told police that, after apologizing to Baldwin, she and Goforth, 47, returned to their car. As they were getting into the vehicle--which was being driven by Boshears’s husband Emerson--both women heard Baldwin say, “Get me my 9.”

As the three Jehovah’s Witnesses drove away, Baldwin began firing in their direction. Emerson Boshears, 49, told cops that he could “see Baldwin in his rear view mirror pointing a gun and…shooting behind his vehicle.”

In a police interview, Baldwin claimed that after he told Goforth and Boshears to leave, the women were “Lolly Gaggin” around and  continuing to try and speak with him. So he asked his wife Christi “to bring him his gun,” cops noted.

Baldwin, seen in the above mug shot, admitted firing 19 rounds “just behind” the car carrying the three Jehovah’s Witnesses. Baldwin added that he “was just letting them know he had a gun and was trying to get them off his property.

Despite that explanation, Balwdin was arrested for felony aggravated assault and booked into the county jail (from which he was later released after posting $50,000 bond). Cops seized his Springfield XDM handgun and logged the weapon into evidence. Investigators were also able to recover 13 spent shell casings. (2 pages)