BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Police in Bloomington have arrested a woman who is accused of pulling a gun on local middle and high school students last week and threatening them while they waited at a bus stop.
Taleah Joe Vaught, 34, was arrested by Bloomington Police Department officers and preliminarily charged with felony intimidation. The charge stems from an incident last Friday in which BPD investigators say Vaught threatened several students at a bus stop near her house.
Court docs show that BPD officers were called around 9 a.m. on Aug. 25 by a school resource officer at Tri North Middle School in reference to a student who had been harassed by the parent of a fellow student.
Officers spoke with the mother of the alleged victim, who said that her daughter had been having issues with another student at the middle school. Several verbal altercations that almost turned physical had been broken up by Tri North staff, including one the mother said happened the day prior.
The mother of the victim said that the two students spend a lot of time in the same places, including using the same Limestone Crossing bus stop. It was there, the mother said, that Vaught had threatened her daughter.
BPD spoke with several witnesses, including high school and middle school students at the bus stop, who said that Vaught had confronted the child at her bus stop around 7 a.m. and had eventually pulled a gun and made verbal threats.
One witness, a neighbor living near the bus stop, told officers she had seen Vaught get in the face of the child and yell about the fights she had been having at school. That witness said she tried to intervene and tell Vaught to not mess with children.
“[The witness] advised that Ms. Vaught displayed a small, black handgun, but did not point at anyone, and told her ‘I’ll kill you in the streets’,” court docs show. “[The witness] stated that the bus arrived and Ms. Vaught put the gun back in her pocket and left the scene.”
Multiple other witnesses corroborated the story that Vaught had pulled out a small handgun and made threats toward the students, but did not point it at anyone in particular.
During an interview with police, Vaught reportedly admitted to owning a handgun that was small and black but denied having ever pulled it on the students when she confronted them at the bus stop.
Given Vaught’s admission to owning a gun similar to the one described by witnesses and the victim, BPD arrested her on a charge of felony intimidation.
An initial hearing in Vaught’s case is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 31.
