photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured in March of 2022. The center houses the Douglas County District Court and other county services.

A Lawrence man was ordered to stand trial on Monday in Douglas County District Court after witnesses testified that he pulled a gun in front of several children while arguing over a parking space.

The man, Joshua Carl Logan Myers, 35, faces one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The charge relates to an incident around 7 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2022, in the 1900 block of 19th Street.

During a preliminary hearing on Monday, a woman testified that her granddaughter called her and told her that Myers and the girl’s mother were arguing and that she was afraid Myers would hurt her mother.

The grandmother went to the house and confronted Myers, asking him to calm down and whether Myers wanted the grandmother to call her husband and son to help resolve the argument when Myers then pulled a handgun from a hip holster and pointed it at her, the grandmother said.

Assistant District Attorney Samantha Foster asked the woman how she felt at that moment.

“Scared that he would shoot me or the seven children in the room,” the grandmother said.

The grandmother testified that Myers told her he would shoot her or anyone else who came through the door. When the grandmother told Myers she was calling the police, Myers said that he would shoot the police also and would “go down in a blaze of glory,” the grandmother said.

She said that she was able to call the police while Myers held her at gunpoint and that Myers holstered his gun before police arrived.

The woman with whom Myers was arguing testified that she and Myers were in a relationship and had been arguing over a parking space for a few days. She said Myers had agreed to trade parking spaces at the residence with the grandmother, who lives nearby, but that on this particular day he had come home from work on a lunch break and they began to argue about the parking spot.

The woman testified that Myers wore the gun on his hip regularly to the store or on other errands around town. She said she and Myers were arguing in the kitchen when the grandmother arrived and the situation “soured” before Myers pulled the gun out and pointed it at her mother with both hands.

“I was terrified. I didn’t know exactly where everyone was,” the woman testified.

The woman said that four of the children were hers and the other three she was just watching for the day. She said there were a couple of other family members in the house at the time, including a cousin. She said that when the grandmother called the police and Myers left, Myers gave her cousin the gun to hold.

Lawrence Police Officer Maurice Henry testified that when he arrived at the scene, Myers had already fled, but he was able to get Myers on the telephone to discuss the matter. Henry said that while Myers answered the call, he said that he didn’t want to talk if he was “going to be arrested” and hung up.

Charges in connection with the incident were filed Dec. 6, 2022, and Myers was summoned to appear on Jan. 19, but he failed to appear and law enforcement was unable to locate him until he was arrested again on April 13, when he returned to the woman’s residence and another incident occurred in which he is now charged with felony endangerment of a child.

Myers is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on that charge on Aug. 17. The woman referred to that April incident in her testimony on Monday and said that a 1-year-old child that she and Myers share was injured before police arrived and arrested Myers.

Myers’ attorney, Michael Clarke, argued that the witnesses’ testimony was full of inconsistencies and that the woman Myers was arguing with told police on the day of the incident that she never witnessed Myers pull the gun out because she had retreated to a bedroom with some of the children. Clarke said that the grandmother testified that Myers was still in the residence when police arrived despite the fact that police were unable to locate and arrest him that day.

Myers is currently out of custody on a $5,000 own-recognizance bond, meaning he was not required to put up any money to be released from jail but may be charged that amount if he fails to appear in court.

The Journal-World has requested Myers’ booking photo from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.