A flurry of law enforcement activity filled Lakeview Estates Drive and Lane last week in response to a 911 call from a man who said his mother had just been shot in the yard of their house.
“Obviously, we responded in a manner one would for such a report,” Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said.
Sills and deputies responded to the address on the 100 block of Lakeview Estates Lane. Unable to find an injured person — or any person — at the address, a search of the neighborhood ensued.
Approximately 40 minutes later, the man who had called 911 was in custody, and his mother, who was alive and well, posted bond for him shortly thereafter.
Kenneth Dalton Brown, 30, was charged with making a false report of a crime. He was released on a $1,405 property bond.
Sills said the call that reported the shooting came in around 4:25 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12. In addition to law enforcement, Putnam County Emergency Medical Services and Fire Rescue personnel also responded.
Until the whereabouts of the shooter and victim were known, the medical responders waited on Lakeview Estates Drive near the back entrance of the Goodwill Store.
“The neighbors called his mother, and we determined that his mother not only had not been shot, but she wasn’t even there,” Sills said. “We waited for her to come to the house before we attempted to go inside.”
After they got inside, Brown was not anywhere in the house, so deputies began searching the woods around the house, according to Sills.
“While we were all in the woods looking for him, he came out of the woods and flagged down a motorist and told the man that people were after him with a gun, and could the motorist give him a ride to the Goodwill,” Sills described. “So, he gave him a ride.”
When Brown was dropped off by the motorist near the EMS personnel, Deputy Sgt. Jeffrey Duncan arrested him.
No gun was located.
“None of what he said was true; it was all hallucination,” Sills said. “He’s been arrested 13 times, and he’s currently on probation right now from a prior felony conviction back in ’23 for interference with government property, criminal trespass, and family violence.”