SALINE CO.— A call to authorities concerning possible gunfire in the 1000 block of South Washington Street in Harrisburg December 6 landed the individual who initially reported the alleged incident behind bars.
According to police reports, at 6:39 that evening city officer Sgt. Michael Riden was dispatched to 1111 South Granger to speak with a caller, identified as Mychal Gooch, who reported that his neighbor Austin Fitts, 24, of 1118 South Washington St., Harrisburg, had come to his home and reported that he had heard what sounded like gunfire.
Upon arrival Riden spoke with both Gooch and Fitts.
Gooch said he had heard what he thought sounded like fireworks.
Fitts reported that approximately 30 minutes before authorities arrived he had heard what he thought was a single gunshot at his residence on South Washington Street.
Fitts told Riden that he felt the shot came from someone he had been having trouble with.
Sgt. Riden took statements, spoke with neighbors, none of whom said they heard anything that sounded like gunfire, and continued his investigation.
Central dispatch received a call at approximately 8:14 p.m. from Jason Quinn who reported that Fitts had been in a fight.
Blood all over face
When Riden and Harrisburg Sgt. Bob Smith arrived at Fitts’ residence they found him sitting on his front porch with blood all over his face and a cut on his forehead.
Fitts told the officers his brother Blake Fitts had struck him in the face with a gun and then left the area.
The officers requested an ambulance on scene and as they waited for it to arrive, Fitts confessed to them that he had stolen two guns from Bud Williams several months prior.
He said that he was contemplating suicide with the guns and that he had placed one of the firearms under the couch inside his home.
Fitts gave officers consent to search his home for the guns and that’s exactly what they did as soon as the ambulance arrived and Fitts’ injuries were being tended to.
When officers lifted the couch in the living room, they found a .44 magnum Colt Anaconda revolver with six live rounds in it.
Also in plain view officers located a plastic bag on a TV tray that contained cannabis along with two glass smoking devices complete with cannabis residue.
They also discovered, inside a shoe on a rack in the living room, a speed loader with six live rounds of ammunition for the Colt.
Fitts was transported to Harrisburg Medical Center for treatment of his injuries.
At approximately 11:22 p.m. Blake Fitts walked into the police department and told officers that he had been at the residence when Austin came home sporting a gun in his hoodie.
Blake said when he asked his brother what he was doing walking around with a gun, Austin told him that he had people after him.
He said he argued with Austin about carrying a gun around and about inside the house.
At some point, Blake said Austin pointed the gun at him and he grabbed it and a struggle ensued, during which Blake said he struck Austin in the head with the weapon.
Tossed weapon, live rounds
Once he had wrestled the gun away from his brother Blake said he removed the magazine but couldn’t get the live round in the chamber to come out so he took the weapon outside and fired it into the ground.
Blake said he also took several additional magazines, with live rounds, and placed them in a trash bag and threw it out behind Austin’s residence.
He said he then took it and threw it into a storm drain on the southeast corner of the intersection of Granger and Sloan streets.
When Sgt. Smith checked, he recovered a 9mm Beretta from the storm drain and the magazines from the trash bag behind the residence.
By the wee hours of the next morning, approximately 12:43 a.m., Austin Fitts had been released from the hospital with four staples in his head and Sgt. Riden was back at his home reading him his Miranda Rights.
Austin said that he had stolen the guns from Bud Williams, who lived in Texas City, because he was suicidal and even placed the .44 mag. to his head and pulled the trigger… but said it didn’t go off.
Paranoid?
Austin said he later buried the guns and only dug them back up the night before because he thought people were after him and were going to shoot him.
He said he did have an argument with his brother who took the gun and hit him with it but said he never pointed it at Blake.
At 1:51 a.m. Austin Clay Fitts was turned over to jail staff and formally charged with Aggravated Possession of 2-5 Stolen Firearms, Residential Burglary and Theft $500-$10,000.
Austin Fitts has escaped prosecution on several drug charges over the past several years and at the time of his arrest was serving a court supervision sentence handed him April 20, 2015 after he was convicted of Driving Under the Influence of Drugs.
He still owes $2,567 in fines and fees from that case.
Cash bond has been set in the current case at $4,000.