Mentally ill man shoots up neighborhood

PANAMA CITY - A man with a history of mental illness fired multiple gunshots in his neighborhood that struck a neighbor’s house and tried to shoot another neighbor several times but the gun didn’t fire, police said.

Shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, Bay County Sheriff’s deputies rushed to the area of Evelyn Road and Orlando Avenue in Panama City after calls about a man cursing, yelling and firing guns.

According to an incident report, several witnesses saw Charles Gregory Everett, 48, shooting at electricity transformers on power poles. One woman reported a stray bullet hit her home.

Another neighbor asked Everett why he was shooting and told him to return to his residence. Everett reportedly raised his revolver, pointed it at the man, said “I’ll just kill you,” and pulled the trigger multiple times. The man said the gun did not fire.

Many deputies cordoned off the area, the report said. Three of them went to Everett’s home and asked him to come to the front door. He came onto the porch in his T-shirt and underwear and talked with deputies, according to the report.

Everett said he was being watched by cameras, the report said, and he claimed he had only used a cap gun when shooting at the transformers. He gave deputies permission to enter his home, where they seized a single-shot shotgun and a stainless Smith & Wesson 6-shot revolver, along with a box of .38-caliber bullets and 18 spent casings.

Everett told a deputy that “the dots told him to put more dots on the transformers so ‘Charley’ could come and put new ones up,” the report said. The report also said Everett was “unable to hold a conversation.”

Everett’s father told deputies that his son had heard voices in the past that told him to do things, the report said.

Everett was arrested and charged with improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon or firearm, and aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony. He was taken to the Bay County Jail, where staff was alerted that he needed to be seen by a psychologist, the report said.