Idaho sheriff must surrender guns amid probe into incident with church youth group

A judge on Thursday ordered an Idaho sheriff who allegedly pulled a gun on a Christian youth group last month to surrender his guns.

Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland will have to surrender his guns to the Idaho State Police or the state attorney general’s office, a judge ruled during an initial court appearance. 

“Consider the strength of the state’s case here,” said Jeff Nye, the lead deputy attorney general for the state office, when he asked for the guns to be surrendered. “There are eight eyewitness accounts of the defendant’s conduct that night. They are not only consistent with each other, they are also corroborated by confessions the defendant made.”

Rowland faces three separate charges, including two felonies of aggravated battery and aggravated assault, as well as the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon, a misdemeanor.

A preliminary hearing for the case is set for Jan. 26.

The elected sheriff allegedly yelled and cursed at a youth group associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on the night of Nov. 9. The group had walked up to his home to place a note of thanks on his door ahead of Thanksgiving.

Rowland also allegedly pulled a gun on the youth group and an adult supervisor who was parked in a nearby vehicle and said “I will f—— shoot you,” according to court documents obtained by East Idaho News.

Rowland told police he was on edge because people had made threats to him and the sheriff’s office before, East Idaho News reported.