Jefferson City man charged after waving gun in public while intoxicated

Cole County prosecutors have charged a mid-Missouri man after he is accused of waving a gun around in public.

Brandon Weirich, 21, of Jefferson City is charged with two counts of felony drug distribution, felony possession of a controlled substance, felony use of a weapon while intoxicated, and felony use of drug paraphernalia.

According to court documents obtained by ABC 17 News, Weirich was arrested at 2:26 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of East Dunklin Street in Jefferson City.

Officers were called to the address after a woman reported Weirich was in a business parking lot with a gun.

“We first made sure that the folks that called in the business were safe and then established a perimeter and tried to talk to him,” said Capt. Doug Shoemaker with the Jefferson City Police Department.

The woman told police Weirich had approached her and waved the pistol in a threatening manner.

According to court documents, when officers tried to speak with Weirich at the apartment, they reported hearing someone chamber a round into a gun from somewhere inside.

Police at the scene said Weirich came out of a backroom with his right hand on his waistband.

After a brief confrontation with officers, Weirich removed his hand from his waist and was taken into custody. Nobody was hurt.

“At the end of the day that’s what we want but sometimes we’re forced to make that decision otherwise,” Shoemaker said.

Police said they found a fully a loaded 9mm handgun in Weirch’s waistband.

Investigators also discovered marijuana, prescription drugs, drug paraphernalia, items used to grow marijuana and several other guns.

During an interview with police, Weirich admitted he was under the influence of marijuana, prescription pills and alcohol at the time of the incident.

Weirich told police he had taken the prescription drugs from the apartment to pay off a drug debt.

Capt. Shoemaker said officers are trained to approach situations that involve people of not sound mind differently.

“Those folks unfortunately don’t understand possibly the ramifications of the decision to raise a firearm at a police officer,” he said. “If we are in an immediate threat, or our lives or the lives of the citizens around us are in immediate threat, we took some kind of obligation to take some kind of action. That’s not something we want to do but if we’re forced to do it we have to sometimes.”

He said officers on the department’s Community Action Team work with mental health professionals to better understand how to approach these unstable incidents and help the individuals get the appropriate help once it has ended peacefully.

A court date for Weirich has not been scheduled.