50-year old Artis Kattenberg and her teenage son were taken into custody in connection with two drive by shootings in northwest Iowa. One in Lyon County, the other in Sioux County.
The first happened on Dec. 17, which was a Sunday. A week later, again on a Sunday, the two allegedly fired rounds at another house. Investigators believe it all has to do with a falling out with their church.
This is what officers found in a fortified basement of Kattenberg's home in Brandon. Dozens of firearms, bullet proof vests and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
"There are a number of people who collect firearms, that in of itself doesn't necessarily give me personally a lot of concern, but when you start seeing indications of other behavior that's not typical, there were a lot of red flags that were raised on this," Brandon Police Chief Dave Kull said.
Those red flags started inside a church in Rock Valley, Iowa.
It's here where a witness saw Kattenberg's teenage son wearing a bullet proof vest at catechism class and on another occasion during church it appeared he was concealing a handgun.
According to court papers, when an officer contacted Artis Kattenberg about her son's behavior, she told him he was an 'Ethan Bot'; a tactical humanoid character from the video game 'Call of Duty' and that he should contact the Secretary of Defense.
When elders of the church talked with Artis and her son about removing them from the congregation, the Kattenbergs told them they had computer chips in their skulls and having some type of handler and were receiving message from satellites.
"When you think you're being handled by a government agent and hearing things from satellites; then we become very concerned about what the intent is," Captain Jason Gearman of the Minnehaha County Sheriff's office said.
While the two are accused of two drive-by shootings, investigators believe it was only a matter of time before something worse was going to happen.
"We don't have a specific that this was going to happen tomorrow or what was going to happen, something was going to happen eventually," Gearman said.
At this time, Artis Kattenberg is only charged with child abuse; but investigators say more charges are likely to be filed in Iowa.
There is a lot more information in the court papers like where Kattenberg got all those guns.
Investigators believe she bought them all legally. If you'd like to read the papers for yourself, click here.
Incidentally, Kattenberg has no criminal history.
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