The man accused of randomly gunning down a Cleveland grandfather held a concealed carry permit and had been warned not to “rapid fire” his weapon at a shooting range, according to reports.
Sherwin Shooting Sports owner Blake Frederick said Steve Stephens had shot at his range within the last six months, Cleveland.com reported.
“I remembered him,” Fredrick said. “He was a nice, kind of jovial, funny guy. I don’t remember anything negative.”
Stephens last year posted a video labeled “Rapid shots” on Facebook in which he was shooting at targets in the Eastlake range, WEWS-TV reported.
Frederick said documents dating back to 2013 determined his staff had not sold Stephens a gun during that time.
Cleveland’s Concealed Carry Courses owner Kim Rodecker told WEWS he didn’t see any problematic behavior from Stephens in the 2016 Facebook video, which showed him being warned not to “rapid fire” his gun.
Rapid firing is a violation of safety rules posted on the range website.
“He wouldn’t trip your suspicion that he was nuts, that he was going to hurt somebody,” Rodecker said. “However, I do feel it’s a good idea to have a camera on each and every stall. This way whatever is going on is being recorded.”
Frederick was checking his records for the last time Stephens signed in to use the range. He said the search is complicated because many people have bad handwriting, Cleveland.com reported.