Editor's note: The original story published by Lincoln County Chronicle was updated with information from an Oct. 13 court appearance.
Charges against a 27-year-old Toledo man accused of shooting another driver in the leg during a road rage incident on a rural road Friday afternoon were upgraded to second-degree attempted murder during his arraignment Monday in Lincoln County circuit court.
In addition to the attempted murder charge, Dyllan N. Thompson is also being held on unlawful use of a weapon and assault. He pleaded not guilty Monday to all three charges.
A probable cause affidavit filed Monday in circuit court by Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detective Chris Marks sketched out a more dramatic scene involving numerous shots being exchanged between Thompson and the other driver, Jacob Barnhart, than initially reported in a sheriff’s news release Sunday.
The affidavit said Barnhart called 911 about 1:45 p.m. Friday to report the shootout that began after a truck intentionally rear-ended his van while driving on Elk City Road near Highway 20. Barnhart said the other driver, later identified as Thompson, got out of the truck and shot at the van with a 9mm handgun, hitting the van’s driver side mirror.
Marks said Barnhart reached behind his seat, grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and began shooting back “in order to get in front of his van.” But Thompson kept approaching the van, Barnhart told Marks, so he fired three more times.
“ … After the third shot, Dyllan (Thompson) dropped as if he had been shot and went behind his truck,” Marks wrote. “Jacob (Barnhart) told me while he was in front of his van, Dyllan shot him in the leg from underneath both vehicles.”
Marks wrote that Barnhart told him he shot at Thompson “a few more times” in order to get into his van and escape but that Thompson continued to fire at him as he sped away. Barnhart was able to get cellphone service about a mile later on Elk City Road and called 911.
The sheriff’s office said Sunday that the shooting drew responses from Oregon State Police, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, officers from the Toledo, Newport, Lincoln City, Philomath police departments and the Lincoln County major crime team.
Toledo officers found Barnhart on Elk City Road about 2 p.m., treated his leg wound and drove him to Eddyville, where a LifeFlight helicopter took him to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis. Barnhart was able to provide vehicle and suspect information of the man who shot him, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office said Sunday that officers from the responding agencies searched a wide area for the truck and its driver. At 5:45 p.m., the sheriff’s office said officers received a report of a man with a gunshot wound at his home on Jacobson Road, a dead-end road off Elk City Road near the crash site.
Marks said in his Monday affidavit that Thompson was at his house with his mother and that she texted a friend to call 911.
The sheriff’s office said officers detained Thompson, took him to Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport for treatment and interviewed him there.
In his affidavit, Marks wrote that Thompson was driving behind Barnhart’s van “and was frustrated with how slow it was moving.”
“Dyllan also told me he believed the van was kidnapping his mother but did not know how he knew that,” Marks wrote. “Dyllan told me he intentionally rear-ended the van and got out of his truck holding his pistol. Dyllan told me he did shoot at Jacob but only after Jacob shot first. When asked why he did not call 911 and or go to the hospital for his gunshot wound, Dyllan told me it stopped bleeding and didn’t think he needed to. While was talking with Dyllan, his reason for rear-ending the van changed several times. After Dyllan was discharged from the hospital, told him he was under arrest … .”
Barnhart has not been charged with a crime.
The sheriff’s office said Sunday that the shooting is still under investigation and detectives would like anyone traveling on Elk City Road between 1-2 p.m. Friday to contact them at 541-265-0777.