Man Arrested for ‘Shooting’ At Camp Shelby Says It Was His Truck Backfiring, Not Gunfire

Authorities have arrested the man they say fired random shots at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. But he says he never fired a shot and that the noise was his junk-pile truck backfiring as he drove by the military installation. And some evidence might tend to prove he is telling the truth.

The supposed “gun fire” occurred outside Camp Shelby on both Tuesday and Wednesday. But… was it gun fire? The guy “responsible” says no.

Soldiers participating in a training exercise on a Mississippi military base heard it Tuesday and Wednesday — noises they believed were gunshots around the fringes of Camp Shelby.

On edge after a gunman attacked military members in Chattanooga, Tennessee, authorities began looking for a maroon pickup truck that the soldiers described from the Tuesday incident. They found it late Wednesday morning when Alfred Baria Sr. drove past officers on a state highway just south of New Augusta.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation took him into custody at gunpoint, with officials calling a bomb squad into sparsely populated Perry County east of Hattiesburg to investigate plastic pipes and other items they found in the truck.

But the 61-year-old Baria told authorities that it wasn’t gunshots at all, just the backfiring of his battered Isuzu. That’s a story backed up by his son in an interview Wednesday evening with The Associated Press. Alfred Baria Jr. said his dad’s pickup backfires loudly every time someone shifts gears and steps on the gas.

So, false alarm? What do you think?

Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, BigJournalsim.com and all Breitbart News' other sites, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, and many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs across the country to discuss his opinion editorials and current events as well as appearing on TV networks such as CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and various Chicago-based news programs. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book "Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture" which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston and follow him on Twitter, on Google Plus , and Facebook.

Share this!

Enjoy reading? Share it with your friends!