Authorities: Pocatello man fires shotgun outside McDonald's following altercation

AMMON — A Pocatello man was arrested Sunday morning after an altercation in a McDonald’s parking lot in Ammon led to a shotgun being fired in the air.

Daniel Jacob Wise, 18, has been charged with felony aggravated assault, which carries a potential punishment of five years in prison.

According to the probable cause affidavit, on August 25, at around 12:51 a.m., a Bonneville County Sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the McDonald’s in Ammon on Hitt Road due to a weapons call. Dispatch told the deputy that a tan Chevy Impala was leaving the fast food restaurant and heading north on Hitt Road.

A press release about the incident states that the call was due to an altercation in the parking lot where a man pointed a shotgun out of a vehicle at bystanders and fired it in the air. A different deputy located the Impala at the intersection of Hoopes Avenue and Parkwood Street and initiated a stop.

The deputy had the vehicle’s two occupants exit the vehicle while the deputy searched it. A Winchester shotgun was located where the front passenger was sitting. The passenger was identified as Wise. The release stated that the spent shell was still inside the chamber.

A man talked with the reporting deputy saying there was a verbal altercation earlier in the evening where Wise left. But the 18-year-old threatened the man, stating he would “pump lead into his chest.”

The release stated that Wise returned a short time later when the man was with his friends standing outside the restaurant. The man said he saw Wise point a shotgun out the passenger window toward them.

The man and others ducked behind the cars in the parking lot and heard a loud bang as the vehicle with Wise drove away.

The affidavit stated that the man told the deputy that Wise pointed the shotgun out the window at him. The man was afraid for his life and believed that Wise would shoot him.

The affidavit said the driver of the Impala, the man and security camera footage from McDonald’s supported the statements that Wise pointed a shotgun at the man and fired a round into the air. The driver told deputies that he did not know that Wise was going to point it out the window at the victim.

Wise said he’d asked the driver of the Impala to give him a ride to the restaurant. He also told deputies that he had smoked marijuana around three hours before the incident.

Wise is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 1 p.m. Sept. 4 with Magistrate Judge John Dewey.