Ex-cop pleads guilty in shooting incident

NORRISTOWN » A former Upper Gwynedd police officer admitted he acted recklessly when he fired a gun into an occupied vehicle, placing the two occupants in danger of injury, during a confrontation outside his home.

Owen William Farmer III, 47, of the 1900 block of West Second Street, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court on Monday to two misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person in connection with the Feb. 18, 2017, incident that allegedly began when Farmer’s stepdaughter, who was driving a Ford Escape SUV, was involved in a road-rage-type incident with the driver of a BMW SUV and the confrontation spilled over on the driveway of Farmer’s home.

A 15-year-old girl who was in the BMW suffered a minor injury when she was struck in the back by a bullet fired by Farmer but it did not penetrate her body, according to testimony. Farmer’s foot was run over by the vehicle during the confrontation.

Judge Richard P. Haaz deferred sentencing so that court officials can complete a background investigative report about Farmer. Farmer, who worked as a patrol officer in Upper Gwynedd from December 2000 until February 2009, faces a possible maximum sentence of two to four years in prison on the charges but state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.

Standard state sentencing guidelines call for a minimum of six to seven months in jail, according to testimony.

Farmer remains free on $50,000 own recognizance bail while awaiting sentencing later this year.

Assistant District Attorney Benjamin McKenna said prosecutors will seek jail time against Farmer.

“This is a situation that could have been resolved in a much more peaceful way that could have resulted with two people talking it out like adults and one party driving away and that being the end of it. Instead, it escalated by the defendant’s own conduct into a situation where someone was firing a gun into a car. A mom and daughter’s life were put in jeopardy and someone got shot in the back,” McKenna said. “That is conduct that we can’t tolerate.” Farmer is represented by defense lawyer Paul W. Tressler who is a retired county judge. Tressler said he will seek a probationary sentence for Farmer.

“At sentencing, we’re going to argue the fact that what he did was to defend his (stepdaughter) because he reasonably thought she could be killed. He thought she was under the car. We’re allowed to argue that, we’re just not arguing it as an affirmative defense,” Tressler explained.

“He feels really remorseful about what happened. He admits it (his conduct) recklessly endangered somebody but he thinks it was warranted under the circumstances and he’s hoping the judge takes those circumstances into account when he sentences him,” Tressler added. “I think a probationary sentence is warranted once all the facts come out.”

More serious charges of aggravated and simple assault will be dismissed against Farmer at time of sentencing in exchange for his guilty plea to the reckless endangerment charges.

An investigation began about 9:54 p.m. Feb. 18 when Upper Gwynedd police responded to Farmer’s home for a report of a disturbance involving a person struck by a vehicle and the discharge of a firearm.

Arriving police found Farmer sitting in the road outside his home and holding a .40-caliber Glock 23 pistol, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators found three .40-caliber shell casings and broken glass on the roadway.

Farmer was transported by ambulance to an area hospital for treatment of a broken foot, court documents state.

Around 10:15 p.m. a 15-year-old gunshot victim arrived at an area hospital and the investigation revealed that the girl had been riding in the front passenger seat of a BMW SUV when she was struck in the back by a single bullet. She was treated and released, according to court documents.

During the subsequent investigation, Farmer’s 20-year-old stepdaughter told police that she made an obscene gesture to the occupants of a BMW during a traffic dispute on North Wales Road in Montgomery Township. She said the BMW then followed her through North Wales as she drove home, so she called Farmer and told him she was being followed and that he needed to come outside with his gun, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

When the woman pulled into the driveway of Farmer’s residence, Farmer ran outside and toward the BMW saying, “What the [expletive]?” to the driver, according to court papers filed by Upper Gwynedd Detective Sgt. Theodore Caiola and county Detective John Wittenberger.

Farmer was at the rear of the BMW when it backed up, and he shouted, “She ran over my foot,” then fired three gunshots at the BMW as it drove away, reported his stepdaughter, who was a few feet away from Farmer when he fired the weapon, according to court documents.

The driver of the BMW told detectives she had been driving to her home in Lansdale with her daughter in the SUV when another vehicle began tailgating her and the driver made an obscene gesture, so she followed the vehicle until it pulled into a driveway and a man and woman approached her and began banging on the BMW’s windows, according to court documents.

The woman said she turned the BMW around to leave the area when she saw the man had a gun, then heard glass shatter in the rear of her vehicle and immediately drove to the hospital when her daughter started complaining of pain, according to the arrest affidavit.

In his statement to detectives Farmer said he had gotten a call from his stepdaughter telling him that she was being followed, and that he went outside with his Glock and after the BMW ran over his foot and drove away, he fired three shots at the back of the vehicle.

Investigators recovered three fired projectiles from inside the BMW. The projectile that struck the girl entered through the back window and traveled through the center headrest of the rear seat and through the top of the front passenger seat, court documents indicate.

“It was a situation where we would have hoped cooler heads would prevail but instead we have firearms involved…Whenever there is a confrontation, it’s always escalated when someone takes out a gun,” McKenna said.