Domestic gunfire results in arrest

An early morning call to the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office reporting numerous gunshots and a woman screaming at the Joker Game Room at 9852 SH 321 sent Sheriff’s Patrol Deputy Brad Taylor to the scene while Dayton Police Officer Kris Seibert also responded as a back-up unit. According to lead Patrol Investigator Deputy Taylor it was about 8:25 a.m. when several gun shots were fired by Baytown resident 23-year-old Bradley Steven Hayhurst from his vehicle towards the white Chevrolet pickup truck driven by his step-father as both vehicles sped away from the game room where the two had been involved in a domestic confrontation.

As Officer Seibert was responding to the scene, she observed a white Chevrolet pickup truck that fit the description of the victim’s vehicle speeding south on SH 321. Turning around on the vehicle, Officer Seibert could see the rear window of the truck had been shot out as well as several bullet holes in the tail gate. The driver was detained and returned to the scene, but the suspect, Bradley Hayhurst, had fled before deputies arrived.

Throughout the day deputies searched for Hayhurst and his vehicle. Later in the day Hayhurst’s car was found abandoned on CR 6476. Still later, Sheriff’s Cpl. James W. McQueen and Deputy Gordon Bean located Hayhurst walking down CR 6463 where he was detained and held for further investigation of the disturbance and shooting.

Earlier, during the day’s investigation, deputies tried to obtain information on Hayhurst’s whereabouts and details of the shooting from his mother, 45-year-old Stacy Lynn Hamilton, who carries a Hart, Texas, address, but according to Dep. Taylor, Hamilton refused to corporate with the investigators in any way even though she had been at the game room at the time of the shooting.

When Hayhurst was questioned later by the deputies in an effort to obtain his side of what led to the gunfire, they met with the same defiant and uncooperative attitude as was displayed by his mother.

Bradley Steven Hayhurst was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and his mother, Stacy Lynn Hamilton, was charged with hindering an investigation. Both were placed in the Liberty County Jail. According to Dep. Taylor, the investigation is continuing.