A 74-year-old wheelchair-bound Colorado woman has been formally charged with a felony after allegedly pulling a gun on a group of children”¦for drawing with chalk on someone else’s driveway. Joyce Bradmon claims that the gun in question was simply an unloaded pellet gun, a fact any good Colorado criminal defense attorney will be certain to bring up at trial, but it’s still a bizarre case.
The incident took place in August, when Bradmon brandished the gun at some children who were playing with chalk in a neighbor’s driveway. Interviews with other neighbors have seen accusations fly that claim Bradmon constantly monitors the children’s activity in the neighborhood, even taking photographs. The children, parents say, are terrorized by these activities.
Bradmon, who has no prior criminal record, has made disparaging remarks about those neighbors interviewed and says that none of it is true, though she admits having waved the unloaded pellet gun. Now facing felony charges, she could see up to three years in prison for the incident in question.
It really makes one wonder sometimes what kind of a world we live in, where a 74-year-old woman is brandishing guns-even unloaded pellet guns-at children why by all accounts are six and eleven years of age. But it also goes to show that criminal activity spans the range of age groups and goes far beyond economic and racial lines. It’s hard to imagine a senior citizen in her seventies needing to hire a criminal trial lawyer. Even still, here we are, and it’s happened right in our own back yard. Three years can be a long time for a 74-year-old; one would hope that, given the circumstances, some sort of mental evaluation would take place as part of the proceedings.
In any case, it certainly brings new meaning to, “You kids get off my lawn!”
