Lawyer allegedly fired at census worker

GEORGETOWN, Texas, May 13 (UPI) -- A Texas lawyer was charged with aggravated assault after she allegedly fired five shots from a handgun at a census canvasser.

Carolyn Barnes, 53, of Leander, could face a more serious charge of aggravated assault on a public servant, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Barnes told Kathleen Gittel to leave after the temporary U.S. Census Bureau employee knocked on her door Saturday, Williamson County Sheriff's Sgt. John Foster said.

"She was apparently not getting off of her property fast enough, and Ms. Barnes decided to shoot five rounds in her direction," Foster said.

None of the shots struck Gittel, Foster said.

Barnes has a history of losing her temper with public employees, the newspaper said. She was charged with assault on a public servant in January after she allegedly hit a sheriff's deputy at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin. In 2000, while fighting a traffic ticket, she wrote the Cedar Park Municipal Court clerk saying she would resist any attempt to arrest her "to the death."

A year later, she said the letter was not a death threat: "I've been practicing law since 1984, and I haven't shot anybody yet, not even come close."