Suspect With Homemade Gun Indicted for Targeting Deputy

SAN ANGELO— A San Angelo man has been indicted for having a prohibited weapon in his possession and targeting Tom Green County law enforcement.

Jeremy Daniels, 31, has been indicted by a Tom Green County grand jury for Possession of a Prohibited Weapon in the form of a zip gun. According to gundigest.com, a “zip gun” is “essentially a crude improvised or homemade firearm and is typically a single shot with a simple firing mechanism.

According to court documents, on December 8, 2023, Daniels was observed standing north of the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office storage containers and appeared to be watching deputy activity in the parking lot as he was attempting to conceal himself behind the containers.

Contact with Daniels was attempted and he was seen walking eastbound in the roadway on West College Street. As a patrol vehicle approached, Daniels moved to the sidewalk, and a stop was performed.

Daniels was observed to have a pipe and a piece of metal in his hands which he dropped when instructed to do so. He also had an orange knife. After Daniels was put in handcuffs, a pat down revealed a cut down pipe with a rubber grip in his right front pocket.

When law enforcement moved to his front left pocket, Daniels began yelling, “don’t do that” and “stop touching it”. When asked why, he said that they were “shells” for bird hunting. Then, he was asked what he uses for hunting and Daniels gestured to the cut down pipe with the grip on it.

Daniels said he used the homemade shotgun to hunt birds. Several of the shells were altered to be fired by hand out of the zip gun. No other contraband was found but, while in custody, Daniels implied he intended to use the zip gun on a deputy as he believed the deputy responsible for taking away his family.

Daniels was arrested and booked into the Tom Green County Jail on December 8, 2023, and has remained an inmate since. He is being held on $100,000 bond and is next due in court on April 2, 2024 for an initial pre-trial hearing.