Reserve officer charged with gun show shooting

https://vimeo.com/212160186

Update: Brian Keith Pounds was booked into the Tulsa Jail at 4:30 p.m., records show. He was released from jail about 50 minutes later after posting bond.

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler released the following statement to Fox 23.

“There are occasions in which a person is identified as the victim of a crime,” Kunzweiler said. “The State may take into consideration the wishes of the victim, but ultimately the decision to file is based upon the law and the evidence. I personally spoke with the identified victim in this case before a decision to file was made.”

Tulsa attorney Dan Smolen released the following statement to The Frontier. Smolen said he is representing Treadwell in the wake of the shooting.

“The video of Brian Pounds inexplicably picking up a pistol, aiming it and firing it in the middle of room filled with people is disturbing enough,” Smolen said. “More disturbing still, Mr. Treadwell was severely injured as a result of Pounds’ reckless conduct. Yet, perhaps the most alarming aspect of this entire debacle is that fact that Brian Pounds is a product of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Reserve Deputy Program. This is the same Reserve Deputy Program that brought us Bob Bates and his excessive and patently unreasonable use of deadly force on Eric Harris. This is the same Reserve Deputy Program that allowed Ken Yazel, the Tulsa County Assessor, to wield a gun during a task force operation and shoot another unarmed man, Danny Foutch. That’s three unjustified shootings by three different Reserves or former Reserves. The growing legacy of TCSO’s Reserve Deputy Program is one of ineptitude, lawlessness and calamity. TCSO’s failure to properly train and supervise these Reserve Deputies has had a lasting and tragic impact. Mr. Pounds is an unfortunate reminder that the legacy of ineptitude, lawlessness and calamity continues to this day. When will it end?

The original story is below.

An arrest warrant was issued on Friday for Brian Pounds, a former Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office reserve deputy who was involved in a shooting at this year’s Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show.

Despite earlier statements from TCSO officials that the shooting would not be investigated as a crime, an investigatory report was forwarded to the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office on Friday.

“When I got to work (Friday) morning, the report was on my desk,” District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said.

Records show Pounds was charged with reckless conduct with a firearm, a misdemeanor.

The shooting happened April 1 near the south entrance of the Expo Square Arena. Surveillance video acquired by The Frontier showed a security guard identified as Pounds retrieving a handgun from a bag, then pointing it in the direction of a group of people and firing.

The Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show bills itself as the world’s largest gun show and boasts several thousand tables for exhibitors. Crowds to the two shows (one is hosted each spring and one is hosted each fall) number up to 45,000.

The website for the show stresses “no loaded guns.” And though concealed and open carry is permitted, guns are supposed to be unloaded.

“All guns must be unloaded and tied inoperable,” the website states. “A crowded gun show is no place for a loaded gun.”

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“All guns must be unloaded and tied inoperable. A crowded gun show is no place for a loaded gun.” Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show website[/perfectpullquote]

The surveillance video showed Pounds appearing to be surprised by the noise and small amount of recoil from the handgun. He can be seen in the video quickly placing the gun on a nearby table before radioing for assistance.

The bullet struck a wall and ricocheted into the middle finger of another security guard named Rick Treadwell.

Treadwell, a former sergeant at TCSO, spoke with The Frontier earlier this week and said the bullet fragment was still lodged in his injured finger.

If convicted, Pounds could be sentenced to a fine of up to $500, and/or up to six months in the county jail.

Records show tumultuous term as reserve deputy
Pounds’s career as a reserve deputy started out on a high note, records show. His personnel file, released to The Frontier by TCSO, show a number of commendations.

In 2002, he was thanked by Throreau Demonstration Academy for his help with a school dance. That volunteer worked saved the school $200, according to a letter written to TCSO from a school administrator.

In 2005 he was commended for his help at Camp Gruber as people displaced by Hurricane Katrina were brought to Oklahoma.

In April 2005, Pounds was commended for assisting the U.S. Marshals with a fugitive roundup.

“It was a privilege to work with Deputy Pounds, and I look forward to the opportunity to work with Deputy Pounds in the future,” wrote Timothy Welch, a U.S. Marshal.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”From this time forward, at no time are you to return to the duty status as a deputy sheriff or identify yourself as a Tulsa County employee.” Former TCSO undersheriff Brian Edwards[/perfectpullquote]

“Excellent!” wrote former sheriff Stanley Glanz on the letter.

But Pounds’ career was also marred by suspensions. It’s unclear from the records what the suspensions were for, but on Feb. 19, 2004, Pounds was ordered by TCSO to turn in all his equipment, and “to refrain from identifying” himself as a reserve deputy until “a pending investigation” was completed.

Pounds eventually wrote Glanz a letter, saying he understood the suspension and that he “did not, with intent, do wrong.”

It’s unclear what action he’s referring to in the letter.

Pounds was allowed back in the reserve deputy program in September of 2004. A little more than a year later, on Nov. 3, 2005, he was suspended again.

The letter from then-Undersheriff Brian Edwards does not mention what the suspension was for. The following day, records show Pounds was kicked out of the reserve deputy program “for the good of the office.”

“From this time forward, at no time are you to return to the duty status as a deputy sheriff or identify yourself as a Tulsa County employee,” Edwards wrote.

Pounds’ past
Treadwell told The Frontier that he was in the ambulance traveling to a nearby hospital following the shooting when he was called by a member of TCSO. Treadwell said he eventually learned that TCSO had taken an investigatory report on the shooting.

Pounds, a former reserve deputy for the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, currently works as an assessor at the Tulsa County Assessor’s Office. He previously ran for Tulsa County Commissioner.

Pounds is also a reserve officer for the Collinsville Police Department, though he is currently suspended, Capt. Matthew Burk said.

Burk told The Frontier that the Collinsville Police Department is conducting its own internal investigation into the shooting.

“He won’t be working the streets or anything like that,” Burk said. “(Collinsville Police Chief Jimmie Richey) and I will review everything coming out of Tulsa, and evaluate his status here.”

Pounds could not be reached for comment Friday.

Pounds’ career as a reserve deputy was short-lived, only spanning about three years. However he had enough time while there to run into controversy.

In 2005, Pounds was involved in an operation involving Tulsa County Assessor Ken Yazel. Pounds currently works under Yazel at the Tulsa County Assessor’s Office.

Yazel was among six reserve deputies who accompanied full-time Tulsa County deputies to Okmulgee County in 2005 to arrest a man named Danny Foutch.

The show of force in another county was reportedly motivated by Foutch’s behavior after he had escaped from former undersheriff Tim Albin while wearing handcuffs. Foutch is said to have mailed the handcuffs back to Albin at the Sheriff’s Office.

After a deputy used a loudspeaker to call Foutch out of the trailer, official reports state he ran toward Yazel and Pounds.

The official report states Foutch ran into Pounds, knocked him to the ground and tried to gain control of Pounds’ firearm. Yazel then fired his .30-caliber rifle at Foutch, who was 46 feet away, the report states, striking him in the buttocks.

Mark Williamson, who retired from the Sheriff’s Office as a captain in 2005, was assigned to investigate the shooting for the Sheriff’s Office. Williamson previously spoke with The Frontier about the shooting,

Yazel had already left the scene by the time Williamson arrived. Though Pounds was supposedly struggling on the ground for the gun, “there’s no dirt or grass stains or leaves on the back of his uniform or his shirt,” Williamson said.

“We were looking for shell casings and we couldn’t find any. Things had been moved around. … The whole thing didn’t make sense,” he said.

Foutch had allegedly grabbed Pounds’ gun but the investigators were unable to find Foutch’s prints or DNA on the Glock 45 pistol. Pounds had already put the weapon back into his holster.

“We were very suspicious because of Yazel’s relationship with Brian Pounds,” Williamson said.

“Why would you shoot somebody that’s bent over a deputy at a considerable distance? You could have killed him.”

Williamson said he told then-Undersheriff Brian Edwards that the evidence did not line up with the story Yazel and Pounds were telling. He said he retired shortly after that incident but sent a letter to Foutch and his attorney expressing his concerns about the case.

Yazel noted that a grand jury investigated the shooting and returned no indictments, declining to address specific points made by Williamson. He said after the shooting, he left the reserves for four or five years but returned.