A Johnson County man was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday, accused of pointing the beam of a laser at a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter.
Austin Lawrence Siferd, 24, is accused of aiming the beam of light at a DPS helicopter and into the flight path of that helicopter on July 21.
The pilot of a DPS helicopter was able to follow the beam and direct Johnson County sheriff's deputies to a rural home in the 9000 block of County Road 604.
Siferd's fiancée told NBC 5 last month that she bought him the laser and they were just using it to look at stars.
"I think that he probably did think that they were just looking at the stars. I really don't think he meant anything intentional. I really don't," said homeowner Brenda Arnold.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas indicted Siferd Thursday -- a trial date has not yet been set.
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The night of the incident, Siferd was also implicated in eight other laser beam strikes of commercial aircraft -- but does not currently face indictment in those incidents.
FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford confirmed in July the reported incidents involved two flights each from American Airlines and Envoy (formerly American Eagle) headed into Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, two Southwest Airlines flights headed into Dallas Love Field Airport and two FedEx cargo flights inbound to Fort Worth Alliance Airport.
Lunsford said the planes were inbound over Johnson County when they were targeted by the laser. One plane was 11,000 feet in the air at the time.
Controllers were able to safely reroute the planes, and no crew members or passengers were injured.
Earlier this summer, federal judges handed out prison sentences ranging from eight months to two years for two men who targeted DPS helicopters with laser pointers in separate incidents.
In both cases, both men faced up to five years behind bars and a fine of up to $250,000.
