Fallston man shot while mowing lawn

Levi Lloyd, 38, of the 2300 block of Furance Road, was mowing his lawn Saturday shortly before 8 p.m. when he felt a sharp, intense pain in his upper left arm, according to Harford County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Bob Thomas.

“He immediately stopped his lawn mower and found a small wound in his arm the size of a pencil eraser, and his arm was bleeding,” Thomas said. Thomas said that Lloyd looked around and allegedly noticed his next-door neighbor, Chester Wayne Craig, 48, “standing up from a stooped position from behind some shrubbery and holding a rifle in his hands.” Lloyd told police he noticed Craig was staring at him for about 30 minutes before he was shot.

“I was shocked,” Lloyd said Sunday. “I never even spoke one word to the man, for good or ill.”

Thomas said Lloyd was shot with a .22-caliber rifle, and when police searched Craig’s home, they found the rifle, in addition to “multiple firearms.”

Lloyd was rushed to the Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air, where he was treated for his wound and then released.

“I can’t believe a person would do such a thing,” Lloyd said. Several children live and play in the rural setting of Furance Road, Lloyd said, including his own. “I fear for my family,” he said.

“The motive is unclear at this time,” Thomas said.

Craig was charged with first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, Thomas said. As of Sunday, Craig was being held at the Harford County Detention Center en lieu of $500,000 bail. Craig has no prior criminal history listed in statewide court records.

This is the second time in as many months that a person in Harford County has been shot while mowing a lawn. The last incident took place on Aug. 5 when Todd Messick, 42, of Forest Hill allegedly shot his neighbor Gabriele Chenoweth in the neck with a pellet gun.