By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
GIRARD, Kan. — A man who reported a drive-by shooting earlier this month at his home in Mulberry has been charged with making a false report.
Crawford County Sheriff Sandy Horton said Duane E. Wahl, 33, was arrested Wednesday by Mulberry police after a joint investigation with the Sheriff’s Department determined that Wahl himself shot at his house.
Wahl had told police that a man in a silver, newer model Toyota pickup truck with an extended cab fired shots about 12:20 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, at his home at 410 W. Perry St. Wahl told police that he did not know who the man was.
The sheriff said Wahl’s report raised some doubts among investigators right off the bat. Information received from an acquaintance of Wahl’s occasioned additional skepticism, and investigators eventually determined that Wahl shot up his own house with a handgun, the sheriff said.
“We did recover the weapon,” Horton said.
He said testing of the gun was not needed for authorities to make the arrest. He would not say whether Wahl had admitted firing the shots himself.
Besides making a false report, Wahl was charged with obstruction of the legal process, criminal damage of property and unlawful discharge of a weapon within the city limits. He posted $2,000 bond on Wednesday and was released. He is scheduled to make his first appearance on the charges Dec. 9 in Mulberry Municipal Court.
Wahl moved to Mulberry from McCune earlier this year after the McCune mayor shot and killed Wahl’s dogs. The two dogs — a German shepherd and a terrier mix — were shot to death Feb. 1 outside Wahl’s home.
McCune Mayor Donald “Don” Call was charged with two felony counts of animal cruelty and a misdemeanor count of discharging a weapon. The charges remain pending, with a hearing scheduled in November.
Call has acknowledged shooting Wahl’s dogs. He maintains that he killed them because the Sheriff’s Department failed to act on previous complaints about the dogs running loose in McCune.
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