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Garfield County District Judge Brian Noel Lovell (Travis County Sheriff’s Office)
A state district court judge in Oklahoma found himself on the other side of the bench earlier this month after he allegedly fired multiple shots from his .40-caliber handgun into at least six parked cars while driving in Austin, Texas, and then allegedly got into a road rage altercation during which he is accused of twice ramming his SUV into a woman’s car in an attempt to push the vehicle into oncoming traffic.
Brian Noel Lovett was taken into custody on Sept. 11 and charged with one count of deadly conduct — discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony, and one count of misdemeanor reckless driving, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the Austin Police Department at about 4:09 p.m. on Sept. 11 responded to a “shots fired” call at the intersection of Matamoros Street and Santa Maria Street. The caller reported that a white male driving an SUV had “discharged a firearm approximately five times while driving down the street.”
Police at the scene say they were able to locate several vehicles with bullet holes in them. The owner of a vehicle with a bullet home in the back passenger door let police search the car and a projectile was recovered from the interior of the door which was placed into evidence.
Police reviewed several video recordings which appeared to confirm that a white male in a white SUV drove down the street and fired multiple shots from inside his vehicle. Three .40 caliber shell casings were recovered from the scene.
While police were still investigating the shots fired call, another 911 call came in at about 5:27 p.m. regarding a “crash urgent” at another intersection located approximately 1.7 miles from the first call. One of the vehicles involved was a white SUV with Oklahoma license plates being driven by a white male who matched the description witnesses gave about the previous call. The driver was identified as Brian Noel Lovell, police said.
While speaking with Lovell, officers said they observed a firearm magazine in the driver’s side door pocket of the SUV as well as a black firearm on the front passenger floorboard.
“Based on video evidence of the collision, an independent witness, and the victim of the collision, it is believed that Lovell intentionally struck the other vehicle involved in the collision and engaged in a verbal argument with the other driver,” the affidavit states.
The female victim told police that “Lovell struck her vehicle” at one intersection and “then struck her vehicle a second time after she had come to a stop” at a second intersection. She noted that after the second collision she “felt positive pressure on her vehicle as a result of Lovell maintaining contact with her vehicle” and said she “had to keep her foot on her brake in order to not be pushed forward by Lovell’s SUV.”
Investigators said the victim was stopped at a traffic light and Lovell “nearly” pushed her car “into cross traffic.”
After being read his Miranda rights, police say Lovell sat for a voluntary interview with detectives.
“Lovell advised he did not know why he would have shot his gun and he could not recall any part of the shooting incident,” the affidavit states. “Lovell advised [the other driver] cut him off in traffic and he rear-ended her vehicle. He also recalled rear-ending [the other driver’s] vehicle a second time, but did not admit the collisions were intentional.”
Lovell was released from detention after posting $10,000 bond and is due to appear in court on Oct. 4.
A special district court judge in Garfield County, Oklahoma, Lovell was promoted to the rank of associate district judge earlier this year.
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