Two men take turns shooting each other while wearing a bulletproof vest, Ark. cops say

Two neighbors were drinking on the back deck of an Arkansas home when they took turns shooting each other while wearing a bulletproof vest, a sheriff’s office said, according to KHBS.

But that’s not the story one of the men — 50-year-old Charles Eugene Ferris— first told police, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Ferris went to the hospital at about 11 p.m. on Sunday after he said he was “shot multiple times while wearing a bullet-resistant vest,” the Democrat-Gazette reported off of a probable cause affidavit.

When a Benton County sheriff’s deputy came to investigate, though, Ferris said he was shot “once in the chest and five times in the back, while protecting a man he called his ‘asset,’” according to the newspaper.

He said he was guarding the “asset” from someone in a white suit after he was paid $200, the report says, according to KHBS. The “person” he was protecting, his “asset,” then began shooting at him, Ferris told the sheriff’s office, according to KNWA.

Ferris had one red mark on his chest, the report said, according to the Democrat-Gazette.

Then Ferris’ wife gave the other story, the Democrat-Gazette reported. She told the deputy she heard a gunshot while her husband was drinking with 36-year-old Christopher Hicks, one of their neighbors. She then had her husband go to the hospital, the newspaper reported.

Ferris then admitted he gave the fake story so that Hicks wouldn’t get in trouble due to what actually happened, the affidavit says, according to KNWA.

Ferris was wearing a bulletproof vest when he asked Hicks to shoot him, KHBS reported.

Hicks complied and shot Ferris once in the chest with a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle, the report says, according to KHBS. The vest stopped the bullet, but “the shot still hurt Ferris and left him with a red mark on the chest,” the station reported.

“Pissed” from how much it hurt, Ferris then shot Hicks while Hicks wore the vest, KHBS reported from the police report.

Then Ferris “unloaded the clip into Hicks’ back,” the police report says, according to KNWA. There were five rounds left, the Democrat-Gazette reported, and none of them “penetrated the vest.”

The two men were arrested Monday on suspicion of aggravated assault, KNWA said, and they were released Tuesday on a $5,000 bond and no-contact order.

This story was originally published April 3, 2019 at 9:41 AM.