Kelly Kenoyer
Of The New Era
A Sweet Home man was arrested Tuesday evening, Aug. 4, after allegedly shooting another man in the shoulder, Sweet Home police said.
According to police, the shooting was reported at approximately 9:31 p.m.
Police officers and Linn County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene, in the area of 49th Avenue and Long Street, where they found Grady Nading, 35, of Sweet Home with a gunshot wound.
Nading was transported to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, where he was later released, police said.
No one else was injured in the incident, according to police.
Following an investigation, police arrested David Charles Johnson, 64, of Sweet Home on charges of second-degree assault, first-degree attempted assault, and unlawful use of a weapon.
Johnson was lodged in Linn County Jail, with bail set at $100,000.
Victim and witness statements indicated Johnson allegedly threatened Nading’s family members with a knife prior to the shooting, police said.
Nading then went to Johnson’s house to confront him about the incident, and produced a baseball bat, police said. Johnson then allegedly fired three shots from a handgun while Nading was outside in the street, striking him in the shoulder with one of the bullets.
Nading said he decided to take action after his 13-year-old stepdaughter came home sobbing, saying she felt like her life was in danger.
He said he’d gotten home late on Aug. 4 after a trip to Albany, and saw his step-daughter Ashton in distress.
“She was shaking and crying and said, ‘there’s a guy chasing us, I felt like I was going to die.'”
Nading said the man had followed his daughter with “what was initially reported as a knife,” but actually was a machete. That occurred as Ashton and a friend were walking past Johnson’s home, near the corner of 49th and Long.
Witnesses said the girls screamed and ran when they went by the house.
His daughter’s story drove Nading into “dad mode,” he said, and he hopped in his car to confront Johnson. He parked in the street in front of Johnson’s house and got out.
“He put his hands behind his back like he was reaching for something in his pants, and he looked at me and said ‘is there an issue?’ I did not say anything, I did not make any sort of gesture,” Nading said.
Nading said he instead popped the trunk of his car and went around to grab a baseball bat out of the trunk.
“I shut the trunk, and he shot.”
Johnson fired three shots, according to witnesses, one of which hit Nading in his right shoulder.
“I didn’t know I had been shot for probably 30 to 45 seconds,” Nading said. “My arm starts feeling heavy and I start feeling weird, and I look down, and I had blood running profusely down my arm.”
Police received calls from six neighbors and quickly arrived on the scene. Johnson was still holding his weapon, according to witnesses.
Witness Michelle Horner said she heard police yelling, “Drop your weapon right now!” Another neighbor, Rose Clark, said they heard police tell him to “get on your knees and put your hands behind your head.”
Horner said she was in her house when the shooting happened, but she said she knew immediately who fired the gun.
“I said, ‘Oh my g*d, David’s shot somebody.'”
Teri Oxford-Kokesch, another neighbor, quickly ran to Nading’s aid, pulling out a first aid kit and putting pressure on the bullet wound.
Kimberly Hockit, who lives across the street from Johnson, came outside after hearing shots, two of which, she said, went into her property.
“David Johnson was screaming and yelling and saying that he got what he deserved,” she said, though it was hard for her to understand everything he said “because he was drunk.”
Horner said she’s been nervous about Johnson for years because of the way he glares at people who walk by his house.
“He’ll just stand out there with his machete and sharpen it,” she said.
She said she’s “relieved” he’s in jail.
Another neighbor, John Miller Sr., predicted that “if they let him out, it’s gonna happen again.”
Hockit alleged that Johnson has harassed her for years, calling her “white trash” and watching her through binoculars. She said her brother came to her defense last summer by yelling at Johnson, and Johnson threatened him with a gun.
“That’s his whole M.O., I think, is causing damage and making people feel unsafe and scared,” she said.
She said she has called the police on Johnson “three or four times,” while another neighbor, Jim Coultrop, has called a couple times as well.
Coultrop’s backyard faces Johnson’s, and he put up a fence to keep Johnson from seeing into his yard when he has young family members over.
“I told the cops, ‘That is on you for not taking his weapons,'” he said. “If they call that self-defense, somebody’s gonna die next time.”
Johnson’s longtime partner, Carolyn Steele, said Johnson might have looked at neighbor’s properties because “we’re birdwatchers.”
She said Hockit’s property was previously a great habitat for birds, so she and Johnson have both looked over there with binoculars to watch animals.
Steele doesn’t agree with the assessment of some of her neighbors, she said.
“He’s not to my knowledge trying to shoot anybody or scare anybody,” she said of Johnson.
She said some of her neighbors are “nice, and some are not.”
Steele said she didn’t witness the shooting, but pointed out that her partner was feeling threatened.
“For a guy to get out of his car, open the trunk and get a baseball bat,” she said before trailing off. “The next time someone wants to challenge a neighbor, they need to think twice,” she said.
She was inside the house at the time of the shooting, and they were just about to sit down and have a steak dinner when she heard the shots. He had been barbecuing in the front yard before the confrontation, she said.
Asked about the machete allegedly used to threaten the young girls, Steele said he uses it to cut back blackberries on the property. She said she’s largely focused on getting together $10,000 for bail to get Johnson out.
“I haven’t had a chance to just be, which is a good thing, because I’d be in absolute tears,” she said.
Neighbors said they are preparing for when Johnson may return.
Clark said “he’s dangerous” and called him “a bully.”
Westley Bradley, a retired serviceman who lives down the street, said he’s started carrying a handgun since the shooting occurred.
According to the police account, “alcohol is believed to be a factor,” and Nading emphasized that he was sober when the incident occurred.
For his part, he is recovering and spending a lot of time with family, he said.
He was transported to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital and was discharged several hours later, the bullet still lodged under his collar bone.
He’s in a lot of pain, he’s been forced to take two weeks off work, and he may need to get physical therapy, Nading said.
He saw a surgeon Thursday morning and the wound was still bleeding when the bandages were taken off, he said.
“There will be no surgery. The bullet is there, fragments are there,” he said.