Police arrested a Camas man Saturday on suspicion of shooting his brother in the leg and assaulting a woman with a baseball bat after fearing that the two were trying to frame and poison him, according to the Camas Police Department.
Both are expected to survive their injuries.
Police responded to a reported assault at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at 1732 N.W. Sixth Court in Camas, according to the Camas Police Department. A woman said her ex-boyfriend, Justin Matthew Gibson, choked her and struck her in the head with a baseball bat, but she was able to flee to a neighbor’s home for help, the police department said.
The 40-year-old Portland woman was taken to a hospital, and Gibson, 36, was arrested at the scene, police said.
Investigators discovered evidence of a separate assault at the same home and learned that Gibson beat up and shot his younger brother, Joseph Levi Gibson, on Friday, according to the police department.
That incident had not been reported to the authorities, police said.
Police said that Justin Gibson drove his brother to the hospital and told hospital staff that his brother fell out of a tree.
Joseph Gibson had multiple broken bones, including a broken femur; significant bruising; internal injuries; cigarette and cigar burns; and a gunshot wound to the leg.
When questioned by police, he said he had been beaten for several hours and shot with a .22 caliber rifle, Camas police said.
“The motivation for both assaults appears to be (Justin Gibson’s) belief that the victims were attempting to frame him for a crime and poison him,” the Camas Police Department said in a news release.
Prior to Saturday, police sought the brothers in connection with another man’s alleged scam to fake his own kidnapping, the news release said.
Oregon police said the Gibson brothers were in a car on July 24 with the man, 57-year-old John McPhail. McPhail had a bag over his head and his hands tied behind his back when he fell out of the moving vehicle on Interstate 205 in Clackamas County, according to police.
The brothers left the scene in the car, police said.
The incident was believed to be a botched attempt by McPhail to fake his own kidnapping and extort money from his mother, according to police.
On Saturday, Justin Gibson was booked into the Clark County Jail. He faces two counts of first-degree domestic-violence assault and two counts of second-degree domestic-violence assault, Camas police said.
