ST. FRANCIS COUNTY, Ark. — They call it “riding on gravel”.
Teens drive on old roads in the woods along the St. Francis River to hang out.
Over the weekend three young people said their joy ride was cut short, when they were stopped by two men in a pick-up truck.
“He told my son, he had a laser gun and my son said I don’t have no laser gun,” said Kathy Chaliff.
Chaliff spoke on her son’s behalf.
She and affidavits stated one of the men jumped out the truck, appeared drunk and kept insisting the teens were armed.
“My son said, ‘I told you I don’t have it. We told you, but you’re welcome to search the vehicle’,” she told WREG.
Even at their young age, the young people said they asked to see a badge and the man wouldn’t show it, saying he had jurisdiction in any county he wanted.
Ashton Ferrell apparently worked briefly on the police department in Cherry Valley, but was fired a while back.
Deputies said they can’t stress enough not to let someone in a plain car pull you over.
“Turn your four way lights on, flashers on, to let them know you know you’re there. It’s better to make an officer a little mad than to stop in the middle of no where and have something happen to you,” said Sgt. Jason Bradshaw with the St. Francis County Sheriff’s Department.
The young man’s mother said the whole situation bothered them and angered her son.
She’s just glad it didn’t end worse.
