Trial underway against man accused of threatening people with a realistic-looking paintball gun during outbursts of aggression in traffic | News, Sports, Jobs

Photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Jeremy James Shacklett is scheduled to appear in Douglas County District Court for his trial on August 20, 2024.

A man accused of threatening several people with a realistic paintball gun after chasing other motorists and cutting them off in traffic is due to go on trial in Douglas County District Court this week.

Jeremy James Shacklett, 47, is charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the indictment. The charges relate to two incidents in 2023: one on January 1 and one on January 2.

In his opening statements Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Adam Carey said both incidents began as normal traffic problems, but Shacklett escalated the situation by pulling out the gun to scare other drivers.

“(Shacklett) used intimidation to resolve his conflicts,” Carey said.

Shacklett's attorney, Cooper Overstreet, however, said Shacklett was new to the Lawrence area and had been living in the van with his young daughter and dog. Overstreet argued that in both cases, Shacklett was trying to protect himself and that while he may have made poor decisions, he did nothing illegal.

Overstreet also said that Shacklett had had some bad experiences on the road in the past that influenced his decisions.

Photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Assistant District Attorney Adam Carey in Douglas County District Court on August 20, 2024.

In his opening statement, Carey went into more detail about the allegations against Shacklett on those two days.

The first incident occurred on Jan. 1, 2023, around 8 p.m., when two families had just finished eating together at the 23rd Street Brewery and were driving away in separate cars. On the access road ahead of them, a maroon van suddenly slammed on its brakes and stopped. The van didn't move, Carey said, and one of the families – a woman with her two children – drove around it and kept going.

After the first family passed the van, it began chasing them, tailgating and honking, Carey said. He said the van ignored a stop sign while turning and its tires screeched as it followed them.

The whole time, the other family, a married couple, followed the van out of concern, Carey said.

Carey said the woman the van was chasing was “terrified” because the van was still honking and flashing its headlights, blinding her. After the three vehicles turned onto Clinton Parkway, the couple accelerated, he said, and got in front of the van to help the woman escape.

“(The driver) knows (she) is alone with her two daughters and he puts his car between (her) and the van,” Carey said.

Then, Carey said, the maroon van swerved near the intersection of Clinton Parkway and Crossgate Drive and accelerated, driving into the couple's side mirror and cutting them off. The van stopped, Carey said, and Shacklett got out. He was carrying what the couple believed to be a black firearm – pointed downward, but aimed at the couple's car, in a “ready position,” Carey said.

When they saw it, the couple sped past Shacklett, Carey said. He said as they fled, the woman saw Shacklett raise the rifle as if to fire it.

Overstreet denied the claim that Shacklett got out of the van or confronted the couple, but said Shacklett followed the first car and now knows that was the wrong thing to do.

In the second incident, on Jan. 2, police received a call about a reckless driver in a maroon van, also on Clinton Parkway, according to Carey.

The caller told police he had just been cut off in traffic and the person almost hit the front of his car, Carey said. The man told police he pulled back in front of the van, but when he looked in the rearview mirror, he saw the driver was holding a firearm and pointing it directly at him, Carey said.

Police obtained footage from traffic cameras at the intersections where the incidents occurred on both days. Carey said this showed that the same van, registered to Shacklett, was involved in both incidents.

When police tracked down Shacklett, Carey said he gave them what he described as a “marker” – a paintball gun that was a replica of a Walther PPQ pistol. Carey said that although the paintball gun was blue, it had no other markings to indicate it was not a real gun. In both cases, the gun was also too dark to see the blue color.

Photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Attorney Cooper Overstreet in Douglas County District Court on August 20, 2024.

Overstreet said that at no point during the second incident did Shacklett point the paintball gun at the car in front of him. However, he said his daughter handed him the gun from the back seat and that the other driver may have seen that.

Shacklett was arrested in connection with the charges on April 28, 2023, but has been free since his arrest on $2,000 bail, meaning he did not have to come up with any money to be released from jail. The trial is scheduled to last until Wednesday.