‘Irate’ man opens fire on Linden gun range, crashes car

An “irate” man fired off dozens of gunshots Thursday after being turned away from a gun range in Linden, authorities say.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff ’s Office received a call just before noon from the Linden Gun Range on South Hewitt Road reporting that a man, later identified as 29-yearold Zonathan Derrell Butler, had threatened a worker after being told the range was not open to the public.

The caller said Butler was in the range’s parking lot holding a cased firearm in his hand when the threat was made, according to a Sheriff’s Office Facebook post.

Two minutes after being disconnected for unknown reasons, the caller contacted the Sheriff’s Office again to report Butler was shooting his weapon toward the gun range.

“The call-taker could also hear gunshots on the phone line at this time,” sheriff’s officials said.

It appears Butler had gotten in his car and drove to a nearby parking lot and fired at least 29 rounds from his 40-caliber handgun before fleeing from the scene at a high rate of speed heading westbound on Highway 4, sheriff ’s officials said. Responding deputies saw Butler driving past them in the opposite direction on their way to the gun range.

The deputies turned around to follow Butler to verify it was him, sheriff ’s officials said.

“(But) Butler had already gained quite a bit of distance on them,” sheriff ’s officials said. “Shortly after, they saw a large cloud of dust when Butler’s vehicle lost control and crashed near Drais Road in Linden.”

Butler was detained and taken to an area hospital for medical clearance before being booked into the San Joaquin County Jail, sheriff’s officials said.

Online jail records show Butler is being held on $600,000 bail and is facing five felony charges, including willful discharge of a firearm in a grossly negligent manner, assault with a firearm on a person and threatening a crime with intent to terrorize. He is scheduled to be in court Monday at 1:30 p.m. in Stockton.

“We are very glad no one was injured due to Mr. Butler’s actions,” sheriff ’s officials said.