Police: Man arrested after threatening tenants with firearm, aerosol flamethrower

BEECH MOUNTAIN LAKES, Luzerne County – A 55-year-old Drums man is facing charges after what police described as a shooting and fire incident in southern Luzerne County.

Butler Township Police said in a press release they were called to a home on Randy Ridge Court for a disturbance.

There, William Everett, the owner of the home, had been screaming at two people who he had leased a room to. He is accused of pointing a long-barreled handgun at one of the victims before firing a shot into a couch directly behind the victim. He threatened to tell police “it is self-defense” in the event of a shooting.

Shortly after, the victims told police he was lighting an aerosol object “like a flame thrower” and threatened to set their air mattress aflame.

Everett was taken into custody shortly after police arrived. Officers found in a search that Everett had the doors to the tenants’ rooms rigged with a key-only deadbolt that the tenants didn’t have a key to. The windows were screwed shut and many were barricaded by wire shelving and lumber.

“These are the exact conditions why subletting can be so dangerous”, said Butler Township Police Chief William J. Feissner. “If there was a fire, they would be trapped and not able to rescued because of the barricades, even though they were on the ground floor.”

Since subletting is often done quietly and covertly, police say it escapes many of the regulatory and safety requirements that legitimate rental properties have. Owner sub-leasing is prohibited within the development.

Everett was charged with felony discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure, four misdemeanor counts each of terroristic threats, simple assault, and reckless endangerment, two misdemeanor counts of unlawful restraint, and drug charges.

He was denied bail citing a threat to the community and committed to Luzerne County Prison.

Butler Township Police were assisted by state troopers, Conyngham Police, Freeland Police, Valley Regional EMS, and Butler Township Code Enforcement.

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