This week was marked by two incidents of violence against Oberlin College students, one of which involved a twelve-gauge, double-barrel shot-gun. The other resulted in an assault accompanied by derogatory remarks toward the targeted student.

At around 2:30 Monday morning, Oberlin police responded to a call from the area of North Pleasant Street from residents complaining that a man with a gun had fired at them. The complainants, three Oberlin College students living on North Pleasant Street, did not want their names or address disclosed.

The complainants said they had been playing drinking games on their porch. They reported having thrown some bottles into and, possibly, across the street. A few minutes later, a man dressed in a blue sweatshirt on a bike approached them.

He accused the friends of throwing the bottles at him and of popping his tire. The students denied throwing anything at him. They denied that there was anyone in the area when they were throwing bottles. They told him repeatedly to leave. He did so finally, but with mumbled threats.

The three complainants do not agree on the man’s exact wording. Their accounts include: “You are gonna pay,” “I will get you, you’ll see,” and “I’ll show you.”

“There was this weird back-and-forth,” said one of the residents. “Honestly, he just sounded like some drunk, crazy guy and I didn’t think twice about it when he left.”

“We’ve run into some pretty kooky guys living out here,” agreed one of his housemates.

Five to ten minutes later, the man returned to the porch.

“I noticed him down the road,” said one of the students. “I couldn’t tell whether it was him or not. But he had his hands behind his back, which gave me kind of a creepy feeling.”

He was slurring his words, yelling profanities. The man then brought up a 12-gauge double-barrel shot-gun and fired at the porch.

“After he pulled the gun it was just shock and disbelief,” continued the student. “Your body kind of takes over.”

One of the students jumped off the south side of the porch.

“He kind of pointed it right at me,” the student said. “It was happening so fast that I didn’t realize what was going on. My body was leaping without me.”

Then the man swung the gun in his direction and he ran around to the back of the house. Another student went into the house immediately to call the police.

“I expected him to be frantic and running away,” the resident continued. “But he sort off just stood there, calling us f-ing punks like before. I didn’t expect him to be calm about it. That struck me.” The assailant got on his bike and rode south.

According to the police report, police observed someone matching his description at the intersection of S. Pleasant and Vine Street. The man’s arm was behind his back and he appeared to be approaching the officers. The officers left their cruiser, raised their guns and demanded that the man stop and put his hands up. He did not comply and continued walking towards them. After at least two orders to drop the gun, he finally did. He was then ordered to get on the ground, which he did not comply with and so was rushed to the ground and cuffed.

The assailant’s wife then approached the officers and identified him as Sheldon Lee Vintson. They had purchased the gun, identified as being from the American Gun Company, some time ago for self-protection. The three students identified Vintson as the man who had shot at them.

Vintson agreed to a blood alcohol content breath test, but not before asking whether or not his smoking marijuana would raise his results. His results were .171 percent BAC.

While being booked, Vintson said that he used the gun in retaliation against the complainants for throwing beer bottles at him and hitting him in the head with a lead pipe, which the students deny.

He then stated, according to the police report, “I just shot in the air.”

Vintson later invoked his right to remain silent, declining to make an official statement.

He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon (felony); having a weapon under disability; assault — non-family — gun (felony); and using a weapon while intoxicated.

His arraignment took place Wednesday, Nov. 9. His preliminary hearing is slated for Nov. 16.

“I’m sure he’ll plead not guilty because those are felony offenses,” said Captain Cliff Barnes of the Oberlin Police Department. “In Ohio, you can’t legally plead guilty to a felony offense before a preliminary hearing or municipal court. The judge hears the prosecution’s side and then makes a decision about whether or not a felony has been committed, and then if it’s likely the suspect committed it.”

“I haven’t really thought that much about what’s going to happen to him,” said one of the complainants. “I’ve just been dealing with my own end. It’s a crazy experience. If someone walks up to my porch, the last thing I expect them to do is pull a 12-gauge shotgun.”

“It was a fluke situation,” said his housemate. “It was the wrong guy and the wrong place — basically, just the wrong combination of events. If he hadn’t been arrested and was still out there knowing where we lived, I’d feel sketched. But I don’t feel unsafe on campus.”

“But it does make you more aware,” he continued. “A lot of things have been happening lately that makes you a little leery.”

He was referring, in part, to another act of violence against a student earlier this week on Nov. 4. At 2:18 a.m., the police department received a call from Safety and Security about an assault outside French House.

Since the assault has fallen under city police jurisdiction, Safety and Security was not able to comment on it.

Captain Barnes reported, “A student had been walking towards French House on Union Street when some ‘other’ person confronted him. There was a shouting match and it turned physical. The ‘other’ male punched out our college student and a fight started. The student described it as ‘grappling.’ The student was assaulted in the facial area, with several cuts, scrapes and band-aids on his face.”

The student opted not to file a police report as he did not want to press charges.

Linda Gates, dean of students, posted the following on the student website that day:

“During the altercation, derogatory language allegedly was used,” she wrote. “Both the office of Safety and Security and the Oberlin Police Department are actively investigating this incident. In the meantime, I want to remind everyone that we take all allegations of harassment and physical confrontation very seriously at Oberlin. Incidents of intolerance or violence in our community will not be accepted.”

She said later, “We’re examining the occurrences as we see them from day to day,” in reference to both of the assaults. “I don’t want to say that we are or are not increasing security because we are constantly vigilant about student safety and what we expect from the community.”