The best friend of a man charged with the attempted murder of two Sparks police officers early Sunday morning says the man was trying to goad the officers into killing him.

Twenty-five-year-old Chad Recob is actually charged in a *pair* of shooting incidents early Sunday morning.

The second incident...involving the officers...took place at Recob's parents home on Waterfall Drive.

The incident began with a fight at a party on Woodstone Drive. By all accounts the altercation ended with Chad Recob leaving, then returning with a rifle and firing several shots into the home.

No one was hit and, for one, his best friend says that was no accident.

"They opened the door and he was right there," says Clint Withers who knows most of those involved,"It was point blank. He could have shot them. I think it was a scare tactic. They were friends."

Recob then went to his parents home on Waterfall Drive, apparently telling his mother he believed he had killed someone. She says he asked her to call the police.

When Officer Wes Keller and Sgt. Scott Tracy arrived they were met with gunfire from an assault rifle. Three of the shots hit Tracy's vehicle. One in a front wheel, two in the rocker panel.

Neither officer was hit and they didn't return fire because Recob's parents were close by trying to restrain him. He was arrested and charged with 2 counts of attempted murder of a police officer one of attempted murder for the earlier shooting.

Withers offers no excuses for his friend's actions and admits Recob has struggled with a drug problem for some time, but says the charges against him don't describe the man he has known much of his life.

"That is not my friend. That's the drugs controlling my friend. He's not a cop killer he wanted to commit suicide. I've noticed it's not been on any news or anything like that, but believe me, there was a suicide nmote. He wrote it and his intention was to ge tthose cops to shoot him because he felt his life was over."

Sparks Police Lieutenant Rocky Tripplet confirms there was a note, but declined to reveal its contents, but he dismisses the suicide by cop argument saying there's "no doubt Recob's intent was to kill or injure a police officer."