Thomas Donald, a military veteran, was reportedly out hunting with his 11-year-old son and armed with an “unloaded” single-shot .410-gauge shotgun (his son chose to use a crossbow instead) when he confronted a man riding a dirt bike on his 10 acres of land. The man and his son then reportedly escorted the trespasser to the front of his property and told his wife, Heather, to call the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to file a “recreational trespass.”
What happened when the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department arrived shocked them both, though Sheriff Kirk Wakefield tells TheBlaze quite a different story.
In an exclusive interview with TheBlaze, Heather Donald recounted what happened from the couple’s perspective. Her husband, Thomas, declined to speak with us on the advice of his attorney and due to the charges against him. His attorney also declined an interview request.
THE INCIDENT
When officers with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene, Heather says her husband held up the “open shotgun” with his left hand while holding the shell in his right hand to indicate the weapon was not loaded and assure officers he was not a threat.
The officers apparently didn’t see it that way. And while Heather later would start recording the incident, it should be noted that there is no footage available to show the moment deputies confronted Donald.
One of the deputies, identified by Heather as Shawn Schnoor, “fumbled” with his pistol and trained it on Donald, ordering him to get on the ground. Heather told TheBlaze it took her husband longer than the officer wanted because he has a badly injured back but he moved as fast as he could. Donald was handcuffed before police made their way to talk to the trespassing suspect.
Realizing how quickly the situation had gotten out of control, Heather said she began filming the scene on her cellphone camera.
In the video provided to TheBlaze, Heather can be heard asking why her husband is being arrested.
“Because we pulled up and he had a handgun — or excuse me, a rifle,” one of the deputies says, before being corrected by Donald. “A shotgun.”
Crawford County Sheriff Wakefield told TheBlaze that detaining the man was the correct thing to do because he had a gun and they didn’t know “who was who” at that point.
The deputy makes no mention of an alleged assault in the short video while explaining why they had detained him. Under Michigan law, openly carrying firearms is legal, except at certain locations — and being on your own private property isn’t one of them.
When asked if they would take the handcuffs off, he replies: “Not right now. He’s under — for our protection.” Heather said the deputy seemed to abruptly stop short of declaring her husband was “under arrest.”
Moments before the short 36-second video ends, another officer tells Heather she “can” stop filming. When she refuses, he informs her they need to take the cellphone as “evidence” and they move to take it from her.
“No you won’t!” Donald can be heard shouting, while still in handcuffs on the grass.
“Yep. Ma’am you’re going to be under–” one of the officers says before the video cuts off. Heather told TheBlaze the last word of that sentence was “arrest.”
Heather says she turned to walk away from the officers, but put the cellphone on the railing of her front porch after she was threatened with obstruction of justice charges. The deputies then allegedly confiscated the phone temporarily, but returned it to her before they left.
“They never told me why they needed my phone for evidence,” she added.
Blaze editor Jason Howerton discussed this story with Editor in Chief Scott Baker on today’s BlazeCast:
Heather told TheBlaze the officers later ordered her to delete the video footage she captured of the arrest. She said she complied.
However, the couple was able to recover the deleted video using recovery software, she says. The command to delete allegation has not been proven true, and Sheriff Wakefield could not confirm or deny the report because the deputies in question were not in the office and available for questioning.
If the officer took the phone for evidence, it was likely to see if any footage of the alleged assault was recorded, he claimed. The sheriff also said he doesn’t believe his deputies ordered Heather to delete it.
Heather provided the following screenshots that allegedly show the recovery software used to retrieve the video in question:
