Two men caught pointing a laser at rescue helicopter flying in North Carolina, cops say
A helicopter crew providing medical transport reported someone shining a laser at them mid-flight in North Carolina, according to the sheriff’s office.
Now two men are behind bars.
Deputies arrested 33-year-old Austin Denver Gill on Feb. 7 and charged him with various public safety and drug charges, the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Tuesday. Roger Dean Bennett, 50, was arrested Jan. 21.
Gill and Bennett flashed the laser pointer at the Wings Air Rescue crew as they flew over Herb McKinney Road in Bakersville, according to the post.
Federal law enforcement officials also reached out to the sheriff’s office regarding the incident.
Pointing a laser at an aircraft is a federal crime, according to the FBI.
“When aimed at an aircraft, the powerful beam of light from a handheld laser can travel more than a mile and illuminate a cockpit, disorienting and temporarily blinding pilots,” the FBI said. “Those who have experienced such attacks have described them as the equivalent of a camera flash going off in a pitch black car at night.”
A man in Florida who pointed a laser at a police helicopter crew in 2017 “said he didn’t know it was so bright,” according to the FBI. He was sentenced to almost two years in prison.
Gill and Bennett were charged with an “offense against the public safety.” It wasn’t immediately clear how much prison time they face if convicted, but deputies also charged Gill with failing to appear in a neighboring county on charges of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
He was jailed under a $30,000 bond for both counts. Bennett was jailed under a $15,000 bond.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 7:12 PM with the headline "Two men caught pointing a laser at rescue helicopter flying in North Carolina, cops say."
