DeLand, FL - Investigators take an 18-year-old DeLand man into custody for using a paintball gun to shoot three people, three vehicles and a bicycle with blue paint while riding around the city.
Damion R. Bletcher is now free on $21,000 bond from Volusia County Jail following his arrest Wednesday night (December 19th) at his East Voorhis Avenue home by the DeLand Police Department.
According to the arrest report, one of the victims called police for help earlier in the day, saying someone had shot blue paintballs at the driver's side of her vehicle from a dark-colored Nissan Maxima as she sat inside it at the Laurel Villas apartment complex on South Amelia and East Euclid avenues.
That victim - who said it sounded like a "loud bang" when the paintball struck her vehicle - followed the Maxima as it sped away and briefly lost track of it before spotting it again parked at Bletcher's home with the tag facing the house, per the report. She called officers after observing two men take a camouflage-colored paintball rifle from the trunk and bring it into the house.
When investigators got to the home, Bletcher admitted to them that he drove the Maxima around the city shooting paintballs in various areas earlier in the day but denied targeting anyone specifically. Some of those areas were Dunn's Bottom Park and near Laurel Villas, DeLand Middle School and the Sha-De-Land mobile home community, per the report.
Bletcher admitted to police that he took the rifle from the car after spotting the victim who had followed him to his home and put it in the back of his bedroom closet, where police found it hidden behind clothes. He also changed his story after arriving at police headquarters, saying someone else was driving the vehicle as he fired rounds from a back passenger seat.
Officers found blue paintballs consistent with the paint found on those vehicles and CO2 canisters for the rifle in Bletcher's bedroom, according to the report.
Another witness told DeLand PD afterward that she saw a man throw a rock at the driver's side door of a gray Nissan Maxima earlier in the day after he and his vehicle were hit with paintballs near her home on South Florida Avenue. The Maxima found at Bletcher's home had damage consistent with a rock strike, according to officers.
Two other women came forward soon after that saying they were also hit with paintballs earlier in the day, with one of them hit in the back once near Laurel Villas and the other hit multiple times in the back and stomach while riding her bicycle on South Florida Avenue near Calvin Street. One of those women claimed her car was hit multiple times with paintballs, while the other said the same about her bike.
The report didn't make clear how seriously those women or the man hit with the paintball rounds were hurt or mention any sort of motive. The damage amount to the vehicles and bicycle also isn't clear at this point.
Bletcher faces four felony and two misdemeanor charges. The felonies are two counts each of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and shooting a missile at a vehicle, while the misdemeanors are two counts of criminal mischief.
No one else was charged by DeLand PD in this incident.
