BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A woman was arrested on Friday night after deputies claimed she held two boys at gunpoint for fishing in her backyard, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
In an affidavit, deputies said they responded to a home along Royston Lane in Melbourne after the woman — identified as Donna Elkins, 59 — called 911 to report the boys’ backyard fishing.
“(Elkins) notified dispatch that she had ‘petrified them’ and that she had ‘stopped them and they were laying on the ground,‘” the affidavit reads.
Upon arrival, deputies discovered that Elkins had walked into her backyard with a pellet gun to scare the boys; a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old, investigators noted.
However, the boys told deputies that they were trying to fish in the pond behind Elkins’ home, which is when Elkins had come out and pointed her weapon at them, stating she would “blow their heads off,” the affidavit shows.
“The victims stated that they feared for their life and believed that violence was about to take place,” investigators wrote. “(Elkins) then by threat ordered the victims onto the ground and stated they could not leave.”
According to investigators, the boys were allegedly pressured to the ground for around five minutes until Elkins’ husband came out of the home and disarmed her. Witnesses near the scene corroborated the story.
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Video shared with News 6 by the father of one of the boys, appears to show Elkins yelling at the boys.
“Do you get people in your backyard?” she can be heard asking.
“Sometimes, ma’am,” a boy responds.
“(Illegible) because if somebody goes in your backyard, you can blow their (expletive) heads off,” she says in turn. “I have a right to protect my property and my house.”
Deputies added that the boys had been on a peninsula located near the pond, meaning they had been on land owned by the Baytree Development District — around 30 feet away from Elkins’ property line.
As a result of the incident, Elkins was arrested and now faces two counts of both aggravated assault and false imprisonment. She was ultimately released on bond of $25,000.
