Man accused of firing weapon outside Second Street business gets court date

The man accused of firing a gun outside of the Lehman Printing Center in Berthoud late Friday night, May 10, had his first court appearance this week at the Larimer County Justice Center in Fort Collins.

Thirty-five-year-old Rhett Williams of Longmont appeared in custody before Eighth Judicial District Judge Gregory Lammons, who presided over the first-appearance case for Judge Stephen Howard.

Williams is scheduled for a disposition hearing on June 10 at 10:30 a.m. in the Eighth District Court. He is charged with three misdemeanors; class 3 reckless endangerment, class 2 prohibited use of a weapon, 2nd-degree criminal trespass, and three felonies; class 5 menacing, criminal attempt 2nd-degree assault on a peace officer, and criminal attempt 1st-degree assault.

Williams will be represented by the Larimer County Public Defender’s Office.

The charges stem from an incident that took place on May 10 when Williams, a former press-room employee of the Lehman Printing Center in Berthoud, fired a gun into the air outside the building after entering the facility looking for a previous supervisor who was not there at the time. Casey Cole, a current Lehman Printing Center employee, spoke with Williams when he initially entered the building that night looking for the supervisor and was eventually able to get him to return to his vehicle. Cole then returned to the building, locked the doors, and alerted his coworkers of the situation.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office received reports of shots being fired at approximately 11:37 p.m. outside of the 801 N. Second St. facility.

Colorado court records show Williams previously had two DUI arrests made by Longmont Police in 2001 and 2007.