West Plains, MO. – A Mountain Grove woman has been arrested after it was reported that she threatened multiple people and struck several vehicles with a hammer earlier this week.
Brett Marlena Gibbs is charged with 14 felony charges. Those charges include eight counts of 2nd-degree assault, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of 1st-degree property damage, and one count of resisting arrest following the incident on Highway 76 in Douglas County on July 10, 2023.
According to the probable cause statement, at 4:28 p.m., a couple reported to law enforcement that a woman was blocking Highway 76 and attempting to hit their car with a hammer. A detective with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the scene and found caution tape going across the roadway from Gibbs’s residence to a fence on the opposite side of the roadway.
The deputy spotted the hammer lying in the roadway and drove through the caution tape to park over the hammer, preventing the suspect from reaching it. The deputy then activated his emergency lights and exited his vehicle. Gibbs is reported to have approached the officer while cursing him and being belligerent. After being informed she was being placed under arrest, Gibbs sat down in the middle of the roadway and refused to cooperate with the arrest.
Following the suspect’s arrest, a voluntary statement was taken by two individuals that stated the suspect had blocked off the roadway near the intersection of Highway EE. They told authorities she had a hammer and was beating vehicles. When she approached their vehicle, they tried to back up and the woman threw the hammer at them, breaking their windshield and denting the vehicle.
After Gibbs was taken to the Douglas County Jail, another report from a couple had come in where Gibbs had stopped their vehicle asking them for a ride. When the driver refused, Gibbs pulled a hammer out of her purse, struck the vehicle multiple times, and yelled threats at them while they drove away.
The couple that had initially reported the incident gave a voluntary statement following the suspect’s arrest. This couple was in their vehicle with their two young children when they came upon the caution tape and the road blocked. They reported the suspect told them “someone is going to give me a ride to town or, I have a hammer and I’ll bash your car in.” The driver had reversed the vehicle when Gibbs went to strike the car with her hammer.
Brett Gibbs is being held in the Douglas County Jail on $50,000 bond. According to online court documents, Gibbs has more legal troubles from May 2023 on the misdemeanor charges of misusing 9-1-1 and unlawful possession, transport, manufacture, repair, or sale of an illegal weapon.
