Police Report Details Arrest of Man, 74, With Loaded Rifle Outside Michigan Elementary School

By Facts News Group Staff

Hampton Township, Bay County, Michigan · Incident Oct. 27, 2026 · Hampton Township Police Department Incident Report No. 26-000582

A 74-year-old Bay City man is accused of showing up at Verellen Elementary School in Hampton Township with a loaded rifle in his truck while demanding that staff hand over his grandson, according to a Hampton Township Police Department incident report. Daniel Wayne Kelly was detained in the school's front drive on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 27, and the school was placed on lockdown. He never entered the building.

Video

Police body camera footage, posted by The Facts Dude.

What the police report confirms

According to the report, school staff said Kelly called Verellen Elementary at 9:42 a.m. demanding that his grandson be turned over to him. The principal told police the school already had instructions from the boy's mother that no one was to pick him up without her permission, and the child was not at school that day.

Staff told police Kelly drove his silver Chevrolet Silverado to the school's front doors at 9:49 a.m., drove out of the lot at 9:53 a.m. and immediately came back, where he was detained. Police were dispatched at 9:54 a.m., and a 911 call also reported a man at the school who possibly had a firearm, the report says.

Essexville Department of Public Safety School Resource Officer Kevin Spyker had Kelly in custody beside the truck when Hampton Township officers arrived, according to the report. Officers say a rifle was found on the front passenger seat. Hampton Township Officer Ryan Benford wrote that he unloaded the rifle, a Marlin Golden 39A .22-caliber, cleared a round from the chamber and counted 17 live rounds loaded in it. A search of the truck turned up a 100-round box of .22-caliber ammunition in the center console with some rounds missing.

Officers, along with an Essexville detective, searched the inside and outside of the school and found nothing else, the report says. By then the school had moved from lockdown to secure mode.

What witnesses told police

Four adults who were in the school lobby, including two school employees and two contractors, told police they went outside when the man in the truck waved them over. They said he told them he wanted his grandson. According to their account in the report, they saw a rifle on the front passenger seat, and he put a hand on it and moved it so they would notice. The group backed away and left in their vehicles.

The principal told police she saw what appeared to be a long gun in the truck from inside the building and saw the driver moving it while speaking with a staff member. She alerted the office, and the school went into lockdown, the report says.

After the arrest

While handcuffed in the back of a patrol vehicle, Kelly complained of chest pain and said he was having a heart attack, according to officers. MedStar EMS took him to McLaren Bay Region. Officers wrote that he yelled obscenities and made statements about killing the officers while they waited for the ambulance. After he was discharged from the hospital, he was booked into the Bay County Jail on assault with a deadly weapon, according to the report.

A check of state records showed a pending Bay County Probate Court order for involuntary hospitalization or an alternative treatment program, the report says.

Police got two search warrants that afternoon, which were reviewed by the Bay County Prosecutor's Office and signed by a 74th District Court magistrate. At Kelly's Bay City home, officers seized three shotguns, a BB gun, five long gun cases and assorted ammunition. A search of his impounded truck turned up a cellphone.

Earlier encounters

The report says that a day earlier, on Oct. 26, Kelly went to Bush Elementary, where the boy goes for after-school care, and left after becoming agitated with staff. Police were not told about that visit until Oct. 27. According to the report, Kelly had been trespassed from Bush Elementary in March 2023, and Bay City police documented a March 9, 2023, encounter in which they say he presented a firearm at officers.

A family member also called police on Oct. 27 to report that Kelly had come to his home at about 7 a.m. that morning wanting to take the boy to Canada, the report says. Police say other family members had previously filed threat complaints against Kelly with Essexville Public Safety.

The charges

The Hampton Township report lists the case as a weapons offense and turned it over to the Bay County Prosecutor's Office.

MLive, citing court files, reported that Kelly was arraigned Oct. 28 before Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who is not related to him, on eight counts: making an intentional threat of violence against a school, three counts of brandishing a firearm in public, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, and felony firearm. MLive reported the threat count is a 10-year felony.

The judge set bond at $750,000 cash/surety or 10%, and Kelly was still in jail as of Oct. 30, MLive reported. The judge referred the case to the Office of Assigned Counsel, though Kelly said he plans to hire his own attorney, according to MLive.

Kelly has not been convicted of any crime. The charges are accusations.

Still unknown

• The date of Kelly's preliminary examination. MLive reported Nov. 10 on Oct. 28 and Nov. 20 on Oct. 30.
• Whether Kelly has entered a plea or has an attorney, and whether he has made any public statement.
• The Essexville school resource officer's own report, which is listed as a separate Essexville Public Safety report and was not included in the Hampton Township file.
• What Kelly meant by his statements to officers, and whether the earlier 2023 encounter led to charges.

Sources

• Hampton Township Police Department, Incident Report No. 26-000582 (Oct. 27, 2026), with supplements by PSO Ryan Benford, PSO Nick Ratajczak and Lt. Ryan Neveau; reviewed Oct. 28, 2026
• Body camera footage posted by The Facts Dude on X – https://x.com/Thefactsdude/status/2117409268513075516
• MLive, "Bay City man charged with threatening grandson’s school, bringing loaded rifle there," Oct. 28, 2026 – mlive.com
• MLive, "Bodycam footage shows police response to armed man’s presence at Bay County grade school," Oct. 30, 2026 – mlive.com
• ABC12 (WJRT), "Police arrest armed grandfather outside an Essexville-Hampton school," Oct. 28, 2026 – abc12.com
• Mid-Michigan NOW, "Man arrested after bringing firearm onto Verellen Elementary School grounds" (includes the police statement) – midmichigannow.com