By Omie Drawhorn
When Jacob Haskett found a loaded firearm on his family’s property last summer, he made the right decision.
Many children may have picked up the gun, but Haskett, 6 at the time, is part of a family of hunting and fishing enthusiasts who taught him how to be safe around firearms.
“We have raised our kids to be smart around weapons,” said Jacob’s mom Shannon Haskett.
When Jacob spotted the gun lying in the family’s orchard Aug. 10, he didn’t even think about picking it up. Instead, he pointed it out to his brother Riley Merrill, 13, and father Zane Haskett, who uncocked the gun and, having an idea of where it might be from, called the Marion County Sheriff’s Department.
Haskett, a second grader at Butte Creek School, was honored by Marion County Sheriff Jason Myers during a school assembly April 27 for his safe response to the weapon.
The firearm Jacob discovered was the same weapon used in an armed robbery July 3 at Monitor Inn. The Hasketts live near the establishment and had already aided in the arrest of suspect David Hiron Brown. Shannon saw a man run past her front yard during the heat of that day.
Suspicious, she alerted the authorities. Brown, now 51, was later convicted of three counts of robbery and one count of unlawful use of a weapon. He had entered the Monitor Inn with the weapon, demanded money and fled the scene on foot. After Brown’s arrest hours later, deputies found his disguise and the stolen money stashed under the porch of a nearby vacant home, said Marion County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Don Thomson.
“They arrested him but couldn’t find the weapon,” Shannon said.
Thomson said Brown was denying any involvement in the crime, but the firearm that Jacob discovered was key evidence linking Brown to the robbery. “It tied everything together,” Thomson said. The weapon in the surveillance film at the Monitor Inn matched the weapon Jacob discovered, leading to Brown’s conviction.
Marion County Sheriff Jason Myers told the students at Butte Creek during the assembly that Jacob’s actions were heroic. “He didn’t touch the firearm; he realized that firearms are very dangerous,” he said. “He is a hero; he did the right thing.”
Thomson said Myers takes every opportunity to recognize kids for good decision making.
“This was an armed robbery and Jacob showed that guns are not toys; they are not something to fool around with ,” he said. “It’s a good life lesson. All kids benefit from Jacob’s decision.”
