Last week, Maricopa Meadows resident Darnell Lemons told sheriff’s deputies that he was scared for his life when a driver from Hidden Valley brake checked him on State Route 347. In response, he fired at least nine times into that truck through his own front windshield.

It was a dramatic shootout on the 347 that has Lemons charged with drive-by shooting, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, endangerment and criminal damage.

It was just one year ago that Lemons asked to have his gun rights restored from a decade-old case.

On June 16, 2012, Phoenix police officers arrested Lemons in connection to a homicide. He was arrested with five others. Lemons was charged with first-degree murder, assisting a street gang and misconduct involving weapons. Prosecutors alleged that Lemons provided a sawed off 12 gauge shotgun to a member of the Bloods gang.

All of those charges were later dismissed by the prosecution.

Lemons paid a $35,000 cash bond and pleaded guilty to a lesser felony charge of misconduct involving weapons. That non-violent, Class 4 felony put Lemons behind bars for five to seven and a half years and left him with a fine of $150,000, according to a sentencing order released to InMaricopa today.

Lemons was released in 2017 and sought criminal restitution order in 2019, the soonest he could have applied. On March 5, 2024, Lemons applied to have his gun and civil rights restored. He also asked to have the guilty verdict set aside. According to records available from the Maricopa Superior Court, the court did not respond to that request.

In 2021, Lemons tried to sue a woman for causing a wreck that injured him. It was a three-car pileup that happened 3 miles north of SR 347 in Chandler while Lemons was stopped. He sued for damages and the cost of medical bills, but the case was dismissed six months later.

Lemons told state police in Maricopa last week that the Glock 43X pistol he used to shoot out his own windshield belonged to him. He was shooting at the driver of a Ford F-150 pickup truck that allegedly cut off Lemons’ Lexus ES sedan.

Police found 10 shell casings in his car. That Ford driver was uninjured, but one bullet struck his tailgate, and another hit his left rear brake light. That truck driver chased Lemons through the streets of Maricopa for about ten miles, according to a police statement. The name of that driver, who lives in Hidden Valley, has not been released.

Troopers eventually caught up with Lemons on Bowlin Road, between Alterra and John Wayne Parkways just a half mile from his Maricopa Meadows home on Sky Lane.

The authorities transported Lemons to a nearby hospital for an unrelated medical condition. After his release, he was booked into the Pinal County jail.