INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office has arrested one man and is searching for another who witnesses say threatened to shoot and kill three women in the Gifford area Thursday night.
Julius Reason, 30, of Vero Beach is being held on $71,000 bond for his involvement in multiple disturbances and at least one assault with an AK-style rifle.
Authorities are searching for a man the women identified as Ernest Peterson.
Police responded to a Gifford home where the victim explained a male who she identified as Peterson threatened to shoot and kill her. Peterson was allegedly driven to the residence by Reason in a dark colored pickup truck.
The victim told authorities she saw an AK style rifle in the front seat of the pickup truck that was “so long that part of the gun was leaning on Julius’ leg,” according to the arrest report.
The victim also told authorities Peterson said that she and two other women were “going to die tonight for putting the police on him,” according to the report.
Minutes after the first victim reported the threat on her life, a second caller reported Reason and Peterson were at her residence. She was one of the women Peterson named in his verbal threat against the first victim.
According to authorities, Peterson broke windows in the woman’s home before fleeing the scene in the same pickup truck.
Authorities made contact with Reason on the 1100 block of 29th Street and recovered the pickup truck behind an abandoned residence on the 1200 block of 29th Street.
Reason was taken to the Indian River County jail but Peterson has not yet been located.
Police have not yet recovered the AK rifle, but search warrants are pending on the pickup truck
While the two women were at the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office giving their respective accounts of the incidents, the first victim received a phone call from a friend who stated Peterson “called him and said that if Reason stayed in jail tonight that he would kill all three of [the women].”
Reason denied his involvement in the disturbances and stated he was at a friend’s house on Oslo Road until he returned home at approximately 11 p.m., 10 minutes before police received the first victim’s phone call.
According to the arrest affidavit, Peterson is known by the victims as someone who shoots up houses and people. He also has active warrants for shooting into an occupied dwelling and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Reason’s current charges include felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm/ammo/electric device by convicted felon, and misdemeanor criminal mischief.
