An Orem resident says it's lucky a recent fathers-and-sons outing he attended didn't turn into a knives-and-guns outing.
Scott Drummond, who participated in a weekend camping trip with about 40 other Orem fathers and sons from his LDS ward, said the trip to one of Juab County's most popular, and generally most peaceful, recreation spots, Burriston Ponds, turned violent after a dispute with other youths at the pond.Drummond says he and three others, including his 16-year-old son and an Orem neighbor's son, were perusing some of the campgrounds Friday evening, when a young man came out from behind a tree and said "What are you trying to prove?"
When the four tried to walk away from a potential fight, Drummond said, the man and a companion in a nearby truck ran at them and some blows were exchanged, after which one of the men grabbed a crowbar and shouted, "I'll kill you."
On Saturday morning, between midnight and 1 a.m., the men and others returned en masse, in trucks, with baseball bats, crowbars and billy clubs, and shined lights at the camp, Drummond said. Then, one of the men jumped out and started beating on Drummond's tent, after which he jumped in his truck and ran over the tent, according to Drummond.
"I don't know what possessed me, but I had the feeling we should sleep in the van," he said. "I'm glad we did now. There's no way he could have known no one was in the tent. That's attempted homicide."
After Juab County sheriff's officials arrived at the scene, the men scattered throughout the area and left. Juab County Sheriff Dan Carter said his office is investigating the incident.
If the initial investigation verifies Drummond's story, Carter said, the sheriff's department will pursue the case further.
"We're just trying to make sure we get to the bottom of the problem," Carter said. "Right now, both sides have completely different stories. On one hand, the people who were in the camp say the others came and tore down their tents, and on the other, some of these kids say they were attacked by people from the fathers-and-sons group."
Burriston Ponds, in Nephi and Mona, is one of Juab County's major recreational sites.