BaldwinCity.com

Brian L. Pitts, a 35-year-old Baldwin City man, was in Douglas County Court Monday as a result of an early Saturday morning shooting in Baldwin City. He was charged with aggravated battery and his bond was reduced to $75,000 from $500,000.

Pitts allegedly shot Daniel Travis Sumner, 32, Baldwin City, in Sumner's home in the 200 block of Elm around 5 a.m. Saturday, said Police Chief Mike McKenna. Sumner was struck in the head by one of multiple bullets fired from handgun and was taken by helicopter ambulance to a Kansas City-area hospital. McKenna said he was in fair condition when he was loaded into the ambulance and he was released from the hospital Monday evening.

"He's one lucky man," said McKenna. "The angle of his head and the angle of the bullet were just right or he'd be dead. The bullet hit his head, then tore the scalp off, but kept going. You could say he was grazed. A quarter of an inch different and he'd be a dead man.

"He was conscious at the scene," he said. "I was there when they put him in the ambulance and he was talking."

McKenna said Sumner identified Pitts as the shooter and police arrested him several blocks from the home.

Pitts and Sumner have been neighbors for several months and had become friends, he said. He declined to give any other specifics regarding the shooting.

"The police department is being extremely tight-lipped about it and it will have to play itself out in court," said McKenna.