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 Baldwin City man told police he doesn’t remember threatening to kill a crew of construction workers. Instead, he said he just showed them two large caliber bullets and told them “I’m good at target practice” while he confronted them about throwing cans in his yard, according to a recently released police affidavit.

The June 22, 2024, incident resulted in a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for 54-year-old Craig Endecott.

Endecott is alleged to have driven his blue Razor ATV up the driveway of a new house being built in the 1800 block of N 150 Road in rural Baldwin, where a group of workers were framing the new residence. Endecott, carrying an AR-style rifle, approached the crew and asked for someone who spoke English, according to a probable cause affidavit in support of Endecott’s arrest. Allegations in affidavits are used for the purposes of arresting an individual, but the allegations have not been proved in court.

Only one of the men on the worksite spoke partial English, and he approached Endecott while some workers hid behind a work van, the affidavit said. One of the workers hiding in the house filmed part of the incident on his cell phone.

The worker who confronted Endecott told police that as he and Endecott started talking, Endecott propped the gun against the ATV. Endecott asked the man if he knew what the rifle was. He said Endecott then showed the man two large bullets and Endecott told the man “he had plenty more bullets and could kill them all,” the affidavit said.

The worker told police that Endecott was mad about trash being thrown in his yard by the workers. He said that Endecott eventually got back into the ATV and put the rifle on the dash before leaving. When law enforcement arrived, the workers were still afraid to come out into clear view of Endecott’s neighboring property out of fear they would be shot, the affidavit said.

When Endecott was later confronted by Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies about the incident, Endecott told them that he had shown the worker the bullets, but only told the man “I’m good at target practice,” and that he didn’t remember threatening to kill the workers, the affidavit said.

Endecott said that he wasn’t surprised that the crew was afraid of him and were hiding because, “that was the entire reason he went over there,” the affidavit said.

Endecott’s wife told deputies that Endecott does not usually carry the gun with him on the ATV and that Endecott specifically took the weapon with him, the affidavit said. Deputies confiscated Endecott’s AR-10 rifle.

The owner of the new home later shared with deputies a threatening text message and voicemail that he received from Endecott the morning of the incident.

“Yes, your company is building a house across the road from me over in Baldwin City, and if I catch your boys throwing their empty Jumex cans out in my yard again you’re going to have lot less (expletive) employees,” Endecott said in the voicemail, according to the affidavit.

Endecott was arrested the same day and was released the following day on a $10,000 bond. He is next scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on April 24.