A Greenwood woman is charged with attempted murder after two juveniles told police she tried to shoot one of them with a rifle.
Linda Bermann, 35, was arrested after the incident Monday night, and the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office filed the charge Wednesday in Johnson County Circuit Court.
The Greenwood Police Department responded about 9 p.m. Monday to two separate calls from two juveniles reporting that Bermann tried to shoot one of them with a rifle at a house in the 1700 block of Blue Grass Parkway, on Greenwood’s southside.
The victim told police he was playing video games in a room upstairs when Bermann burst into the room, pointed the rifle at his head and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed and did not fire, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The victim pushed Bermann out of the room as she tried to unjam the gun, locked the door and called 911. Another juvenile who heard the commotion and saw Bermann point the gun at the victim also called 911, according to court documents.
When officers arrived, they demanded Bermann exit the house, which she did without incident. She later told police she put the gun down when she heard the sirens outside, court documents show.
Once detained, Bermann told police at the scene she wanted to kill herself, and she intended to point the gun at the victim. She later told police she wanted to kill herself and the two juveniles because a relative had upset her, and she wanted to make that relative feel guilty, according to court documents.
Police entered the house and went upstairs where they observed the rifle on the floor in the hallway in front of the room where the victim was. It had an indention on the primer of the round from what appeared to be a contact point of the firing pin, which indicates the bolt of the rifle was forward with the firing pin pressed against the primer of the cartridge as it was chambered. But it is not clear whether the trigger is required to be pulled for the firing pin to cause the mark. Police found 18 unfired bullets in the magazine, court documents said.
Police discovered a second unfired cartridge in the upstairs hallway, between Bermann’s bedroom and the room where the victim was. The primer on this cartridge had a similar mark. The nose of the bullet also had apparent scrape marks consistent with a cartridge that had been chambered, court documents said.
Police found two firearms inside the house — the rifle and a pistol — both of which were secured and placed into evidence, according to court documents.
Both juveniles were unharmed and left the scene with other family members, police said.
Bermann, who has a history of alcohol abuse and spent time in rehab last year in Oklahoma following an incident in which she tried to stab a juvenile with a pair of scissors, was taken to IU Health Methodist Hospital for an immediate detention and health evaluation, court documents said.
Once released, she was taken to the Johnson County jail, where she is held on $40,000 bond.
Law enforcement officials also filed paperwork to have Bermann’s firearm rights suspended under Indiana’s red flag law, according to news releases from the Greenwood Police Department and prosecutor’s office.
Attempted murder is a Level 1 felony, the highest level crime a person can be charged with besides murder. Bermann could face up to 40 years in prison.
