On the evening of March 24, 2020, Brendan Anton van Zweel, a 25-year-old white male from Fairland, Oklahoma, went with his mother and her brother to the rural home of his mother’s former boyfriend on East 230 Road after learning that the man was threatening to harm himself. The property, a trailer home at Gray’s Ranch along 60800 East 230 Road in Ottawa County, became the setting for a confrontation that began as a worried family’s attempt to intervene in a mental health crisis and turned
almost immediately into a deadly attack.
When the three arrived at the residence of 48-year-old Edwin Ball, the situation exploded without warning. According to investigative and news accounts, Ball opened fire on the group as they came to the door, striking Brendan and mortally wounding him before he could escape. His mother’s brother, identified in reports as her brother and as an uncle to Brendan, was also shot and injured in the gunfire but survived after being rushed to a hospital in nearby Joplin, Missouri. Deputies and medics responding to the scene found Brendan already dead from a gunshot wound when they reached the ranch a short time later.
After shooting Brendan and wounding the uncle, Ball retreated into his trailer and barricaded himself inside, turning the isolated property into the center of a tense overnight standoff. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office requested help from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and troopers moved in to establish a perimeter around the home. As they took up positions, Ball began firing repeatedly from inside the residence at both deputies and troopers. In the exchange, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, identified in records as Trooper Jeff Laue, was struck in the eye by a pellet or shrapnel and had to be transported to a hospital in Joplin for treatment, adding another casualty to the night’s violence.
For hours, negotiators tried to talk Ball out while the tactical team prepared for the possibility that he would continue firing. Reports describe him shooting numerous rounds at the tactical officers as the standoff stretched through the night. Eventually, law enforcement introduced gas into the residence to force him out, and around the early morning hours—shortly after 5 a.m.—troopers and deputies were able to move in and take him into custody without further injury. Behind them they left a crime scene that told the story of how a call about a suicidal threat had spiraled into the killing of a young man, the wounding of his uncle, and a trooper facing a life-changing eye injury.
In the days that followed, investigators from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation formally opened a homicide case, and Ball was booked into the Ottawa County Jail. He was held as the sole suspect in Brendan’s death and faced complaints of felony murder along with multiple counts of shooting with intent to kill, reflecting both the wounding of the uncle and the attack on the Highway Patrol trooper. Court and news records indicate that Ball later entered guilty pleas in Ottawa County District Court and received a 35-year sentence tied to the killing and the related shootings, effectively marking him as the man held responsible for Brendan’s death and for the night of violence that shook Fairland and the surrounding community.
