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SPANISH FORK — Criminal charges were filed Wednesday against a Spanish Fork man who police say was hallucinating when he shot up his house.
Kyle Eugene Morgan, 42, is charged in 4th District Court with three counts of possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a third-degree felony; reckless endangerment, a class A misdemeanor; possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful discharge of a firearm, class B misdemeanors.
On Sunday, Spanish Fork police responded to a report that shots had been fired. Emergency dispatchers could hear gunshots as the 911 caller was talking on the phone, according to charging documents.
The first arriving officers reported finding Morgan standing in the doorway with a pistol-grip shotgun. He surrendered without incident when police approached.
Inside the house, officers found Morgan’s elderly parents and a 10-year-old boy who told them that Morgan “was having hallucinations and believed that there were intruders in the home. (He) had fired approximately 10 rounds from a .40 caliber handgun and the shotgun into various parts of the residence,” the charges state. “Officers located a third weapon, an assault rifle, in (Morgan’s) room and drug paraphernalia which had been used to ingest marijuana.”
According to a police affidavit, Morgan also believed that a woman had been stabbed and was on his parents’ couch.
“While Kyle was attending to this female, he reported to have seen several males enter the room. Kyle warned them to get back and they did not. Kyle then went to his room in the basement, loaded a handgun and a shotgun, walked back upstairs and confronted these hallucinations,” the affidavit states.
Morgan said the men would disappear when the lights came on, so he kept them off and shot at one of the intruders he believed he was seeing, the affidavit states. His father “begged Kyle to stop shooting and informed Kyle that no one was in the house. Kyle did not believe his father and moved to pick up the shotgun. Kyle was upset that his dad turned on the lights because that meant he could not see the subjects he was fighting. Kyle then used his shotgun to shoot the other males.
“It should be noted that until I notified Kyle no one was shot, he believed that he had killed several people,” an officer wrote.
It should be noted that until I notified Kyle no one was shot, he believed that he had killed several people.
–Police affidavit
Several thousand dollars worth of damage was done to couches, a back door, walls, cabinets and windows in the house, the affidavit states. One shot went into a neighbor’s yard.
“The actions Kyle exhibited today by discharging two firearms in his home caused several thousands of dollars of damage to the home, put the family and the neighbors in grave danger, had his father in fear for his life and almost caused officers to shoot him,” police wrote in the affidavit.
It’s the second day in a row that criminal charges were filed in Utah against someone who police say endangered others with a rifle while hallucinating.
In an unrelated case, Richard Grant Lees, 49, of Draper, was charged Tuesday with shooting at a police officer and at objects around his house after he also had hallucinations, according to prosecutors.
