PAR Guns owner arrested on theft warrant

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

Michael Desmond, owner of PAR Guns in Copperas Cove, turned himself in to the Copperas Cove Police Department on Tuesday morning in response to a Jan. 30 arrest warrant that was issued against him for theft over $2,500 but less than $30,000. 

The charges are related to an alleged “loan” Desmond obtained that was related to a business venture. 

According to the arrest affidavit, an investigation began on Dec. 20, 2016, when Chad Hayes Chancellor attempted to contact the Coryell County district attorney’s office regarding the alleged theft.

That’s when Detective Rick Counter of the CCPD first spoke with Chancellor, who told Counter that he “had been scammed” by Desmond.

“(Chancellor) explained Michael claimed to have created a company called Response Plan which made disaster preparedness bags. (Desmond) said Response Plan won a $320,950 contract with Austin Independent School District (AISD) and he needed $14,100 to fill the order,” Counter wrote in the affidavit. 

Desmond then provided Chancellor with an invoice listing the details of the order and Chancellor subsequently agreed to provide Desmond with the loan. 

He told Counter that on Sept. 21, 2016, he gave Desmond a check for the $14,100, and Desmond agreed to repay the loan “by October 2016,” according to the arrest affidavit. 

Then the due date for the loan repayment passed, and Chancellor told Counter that when he tried to contact Desmond, he had “learned his business had gone bankrupt” and when Chancellor made contact with a PAR Guns employee, he “learned the contract with AISD may have been a lie.” 

On Jan. 27, Detective Counter contacted Annie Collier, Assistant Director of Contract Procurement Service for the Austin Independent School District, and provided her with a copy of the invoice which Desmond had given Chancellor.

Counter said it “was confirmed AISD never had a contract with any vendor named PAR Guns or Response Plan.” 

Lt. Brian Wyers with the CCPD said Desmond was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond the same day.

PAR Guns has been closed since November 2016 after the property’s landlord locked the doors to the store at 2705 E. Bus. 190. The store was first closed temporarily for non-payment of rent on Oct. 22. Also on that day, the store’s Facebook page bore a post that Desmond was “in the hospital and will be for some time.” The store then reopened the following week and remained open until its closure in November. The store’s Facebook page and website have since been taken down. 

PAR Guns was known for its firearms sales and custom work, but also for personal “response plans” that Desmond sold in the store, which also hosted monthly preparedness classes.