An Iowa pastor was arrested for allegedly firing a gun at a car that his daughter was riding in, the Des Moines Police Department said.
Rev. Michael Deavon Cameron, 44, works as a pastor at the Revival Center Church of God in Christ. He was arrested early Feb. 22 after allegedly shooting at a vehicle while trying to protect his family.
“Basically he told (officers) that his daughter was in an abusive relationship and he was trying to help,” Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek told the Des Moines Register.
Cameron’s wife, though, says that the pastor never fired the gun. Shawnice Cameron, 42, said her husband wouldn’t have fired if there was a chance of hitting their daughter.
She said that her husband went to a house where their daughter was staying with her boyfriend because she told a relative she was going to be assaulted.
Metro pastor charged with chasing, shooting at daughter https://t.co/BR97wxRcri pic.twitter.com/JEuhbICqY6
— KCCI News (@KCCINews) February 23, 2019
“He goes over there to make sure this boy’s not beating (his daughter) up and he ends up in jail,” she said.
Police and Shawnice Cameron said that three of the couple’s 12 children were in the vehicle with Michael Cameron at the time of the alleged shooting. Two of the children are minors, resulting in two counts of child endangerment in addition to two other charges against Michael Cameron. Those are domestic abuse assault with a dangerous weapon and intimidation with a serious weapon.
Police found two legally owned guns in Michael Cameron’s vehicle and a spent shell casing but Shawnice Cameron said that the spent shell was old and had not been fired that night.
Parizek, though, said police believe Cameron did shoot at the vehicle his daughter was in.
Iowa pastor arrested and charged after he allegedly shot at a car containing three of his children https://t.co/fgf2sBJ0oP
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) February 25, 2019
“There are certain professions that we expect a higher standard of behavior out of, and whether it’s a teacher or a pastor or a police officer, there’s just expectations that you’re not going to do silly things like this,” he told KCCI. “Chasing another car through our streets and firing a gun isn’t just family business that we can ignore. I mean, these are public safety issues that involve anybody else who’s in the area at the time.”
Cell phone footage was captured by another member of the family riding in the pastor’s vehicle while a number of police officers responded to the scene, questioning the large response.
“This is a complete joke. This many police officers. There’s actually more police officers than this,” the relative said, referring to how there were more officers than can be seen.
Cameron was released from jail and is due in court in March. He was ordered to stay away from the children who were in his car when he allegedly fired the weapon.
“As a father of a daughter, I can completely wrap my head around wanting to protect my child if she’s ever in an abusive situation,” a police spokesman said, “but at some point logic has to kick in over anger.” https://t.co/1hiR1hsbXU
— Des Moines Register (@DMRegister) February 23, 2019
Crime Decreased
The FBI said that both violent crime and property crime decreased in 2017, the last year that full statistics are available for, compared to 2016. Overall violent crime decreased 0.2 percent from 2016 to 2017, while property crime decreased 3 percent during that time, the agency said in September 2018, releasing data from the previous year.
“There were more than 1.2 million violent crimes reported to UCR nationwide in 2017. There was a 0.7 percent decrease in murders and a 4 percent decrease in robberies from 2016 to 2017. Aggravated assaults increased by 1 percent in 2017. The FBI began collecting data solely on an updated rape definition last year, and 135,755 rapes were reported to law enforcement in 2017,” the FBI stated.
Des Moines pastor allegedly shoots at car carrying daughter: report – https://t.co/oIhZ30iJUi
Michael Deavon Cameron.
Authorities in Iowa arrested a pastor they say shot at a car that was carrying three of his children, including his daughter and two young sons, reports… pic.twitter.com/cxHA6mTsA0
— TheDailyUSNews.com (@TheDailyUsNews) February 25, 2019
“The report also showed there were more than 7.7 million property crimes last year. Burglaries decreased 7.6 percent and larceny-thefts decreased by 2.2 percent. Motor vehicle thefts increased by 0.8 percent from 2016 to 2017.”
The figures were compiled from more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies around the United States that submitted their crime data to the FBI.
