Bullets fly in sign prank

By Ed Runyan

The boy’s injury from the shooting was considered minor.

WARREN — A pair of teenage boys thought they were playing a prank by knocking down a John McCain campaign sign Saturday afternoon and yelling, “This is for Obama” to the homeowner.

But the homeowner, Kenneth Rowles, 50, was sitting on the front porch and didn’t think it was funny, especially since this was the second time vandals had damaged his campaign signs.

Rowles went into his 1237 Dover St. home in Warren Township, got a .22-caliber rifle and went back to the porch to confront the boys at about 2 p.m.

Rowles said he fired the rifle three times “to scare them” but never pointed the rifle at the boys or the car.

Nonetheless, at about 11 a.m. Sunday, the mother of one of the boys called police — saying her nephew, Kyree Flowers, 17, of 1205 Dover, had been shot once in the arm, and that her tan GMC SUV had been hit by two other bullets.

Flowers received a minor injury from the bullet and was treated at a local hospital Sunday.

The woman’s son, Patrick A. Wise Jr., 16, of Commerce Avenue in Warren, was the driver of the car. He told police: “Joking and playing, I got out of the car and kicked his political sign over. Kyree was in the car and told me to turn around, and I saw the man pointing his gun at me, trying to shoot at me, working the action. I ran into the car, and he shot at us through both the passenger and driver window.”

Rowles was arrested Sunday and charged with felonious assault, a second-degree felony, punishable by up to eight years in prison upon conviction.

He pleaded innocent Monday in Warren Municipal Court, and Judge Thomas Gysegem set bond at $10,000. He ordered Rowles to stay away from the boys and not use any weapons if he is able to get out of Trumbull County Jail on bond.

Warren Township police confiscated all of the weapons in Rowles’ home: 11 long guns (meaning rifles and shotguns) and four pistols.

Warren Township police said Rowles called them to his house Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m. to tell them about two young men who damaged his sign, but he didn’t mention having fired his rifle.

He also asked the officer, Patrolman Daniel Peterson, if he knew anything about a new Ohio law that allows a homeowner to protect his property, but the officer said he didn’t know much about it.

After Wise’s mother called police about the episode, Rowles admitted to having fired the rifle but denied having fired it at the boys.

Greg Hicks, Warren’s law director, said the new law Rowles asked about is called the Castle Doctrine.

According to the Buckeye Firearms Association, the Castle Doctrine says that if someone “breaks into your occupied home or temporary habitation, or your occupied car, you now have an initial presumption that you may act in self- defense and you will not be second-guessed by the state.”

Hicks says Rowles went “above and beyond what is needed to protect your home,” however.

“He never said anything about concerns for his safety or his home,” Hicks said, referring to Rowles’ statement to police.

Campaign sign vandalism can be a local crime, not a federal one. But Hicks added that he doesn’t believe the boys are likely to face any criminal charges “based on the scope of what happened” when Rowles fired his gun at them.

Police said one shot entered the passenger side window of the SUV, shattering that window and the driver’s side window. Another bullet hit the passenger side of the car on the post between the front and back door.

Flowers told police that Rowles had tried to shoot Wise while Wise was out of the SUV knocking down the sign, but Rowles had trouble working his gun.

Wise had gotten back into the SUV and was driving off when the bullets hit Flowers and the vehicle, Flowers told police.

runyan@vindy.com