On April 21, 2026, Anoka County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to 8331 177th Lane, in the city of Columbus, Anoka County, Minnesota, to investigate a dispute between neighbors. 911 call dispatch notes indicated that a male, later fully identified as Brian Desmond Flaherty [DOB REDACTED], hereinafter the Defendant, threatened his neighbor with a firearm. When Deputy Rosar arrived, he spoke with J. J. R. [DOB REDACTED]. J. J. R. Told the Deputy that the dispute with his neighbor started because the Defendant was blaring music very loudly.
He asked him to turn down the music, but he responded that if it was before 9:00 P.M. He could play his music as loudly as he wanted. J. J. R. Said that he walked through a path between the houses to talk to him to ask him to turn the music down because his wife was in the hospital the previous evening and was trying to rest. This started an argument between the two neighbors. As J. J. R. Walked toward the Defendant he entered his detached garage and came back out holding a hunting rifle. J. J. R described it as black and had a dark wood grain.
The Defendant was holding it so the barrel was pointed towards the sky, but threatening whether J. J. R. Wanted to "test his fate." They continued to argue some more, and the Defendant once again went into the garage and came back out with a black AR-15 style rifle, and continued to threaten J. J. R. J. J. R. Left and called 911. In a post-Miranda statement the Defendant agreed he was playing music in his truck and admitted the music was loud. He stated he had subwoofers in his truck, which made the music louder.
His neighbor J. J. R. Came over the property line to the west of his house and started yelling at him about his loud music. The Defendant said he was holding a gun as a “scare tactic” because J. J. R. Walked onto his property uninvited. The Defendant claimed the gun he was holding was a brown break-barreled pellet rifle and that the gun was not loaded. The Defendant told Deputies he grabbed the gun today because he got heated due to this encounter, and his first reaction was to grab the gun since he was being yelled at on his own property.
The Defendant admitted he said something like, “he could hit him between the eyes if he wanted to,” but told deputies he would never do that because he is not a violent person. Law enforcement sought and obtained a search warrant for the property. Police located five rifles in the detached garage on the property. They found a brown break-barreled pellet rifle just inside the service door to the detached garage, another black AR- 15 style air rifle as described by J. J. R. Was found in the northeast corner of the detached garage behind a chair.
Three other rifles were found in an unlocked gun safe in the garage, two of which were pellet rifles, and one was a.22 caliber firearm.
