SMARTSBURG — A Darlington man remains jailed after police say he pointed an unloaded firearm at a Smartsburg-area couple while attempting to break into their house in the wee hours of the morning.
Dirk R. Fyffe, 49, was arrested April 22 by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office on preliminary felony charges of pointing a firearm, residential entry, two counts of intimidation and misdemeanor criminal mischief.
One of the homeowners told police he confronted Fyffe around 3:30 a.m. April 22 outside the house in the 700 block of North C.R. 625E after hearing repeated banging noises, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputy Shelby Curtis in Montgomery Circuit Court.
The suspect pointed what appeared to be a muzzle-loading pistol at the homeowner and his wife, Curtis said. The woman had just returned inside the house after starting her vehicle in the driveway to go to work, her husband told police.
The couple barricaded themselves in the house and called the police as Fyffe continued banging on the front door, Curtis said.
A responding sheriff’s deputy spotted Fyffe in the middle of the road and arrested him, Curtis said. She said police recovered the pistol from a nearby ditch and found the woman’s car in the driveway with a shattered front windshield and driver’s side window.
Fyffe was treated for cuts on his hand before being booked into the jail, Curtis said. He was being held on a $2,000 cash bond.
In 2016, Fyffe was found guilty but mentally ill of misdemeanor counts of intimidation and battery in Montgomery County, according to court records. He was given a two-year suspended sentence in the Montgomery County Jail and placed on probation for 684 days.
He was arrested on a felony charge of residential entry in 2012, but the case was later dismissed, court records show.
