LIBERTY — Three Central men face kidnapping and weapons charges after police say they held a Liberty man at gunpoint before trading shots with him.
According to a report from the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, a Liberty man told them he heard a vehicle with a loud muffler drive slowly by his home on Teri Drive, then turn around and come back to stop in front of his house at about 2 a.m. last Friday morning.
When the man went outside to see who was there, police said, he saw people wearing bandannas walking around in his front yard. After he told the people to leave because he had nothing they could steal, he told officers, one of the bandanna-wearing men approached him and placed a handgun in his back, demanding to know where the man’s son was.
According to the report, the man then asked to be moved closer to his home, because his grandson was inside. As he got closer to the house, he was able to grab his loaded shotgun and fire a round at the assailants.
The man told officers that he then fired another round at the men as they fired several rounds with a shotgun and handgun at him and towards his home. Bullet holes were found in the house, but the victim was unhurt.
The suspects fled the scene, and detectives with the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office later found them at Oconee Memorial Hospital, “where they were treated and released from injuries obtained during this gun battle,” according to the report.
Investigators charged Jeremy Robert Dalton, 18, Adam Zachary Dixon, 18, and Steven Lamar Ivester, 20, all of 268 Peach Drive in Central, with kidnapping and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
All three are currently being held at the Pickens County Detention Center.