Monday, June 15, 2009

Horse Dispute Ends In Gunfire

   A dispute involving neighbors and the actions of their horses during the weekend resulted in gunshots being fired and threats being made.

   Deputies with the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to intervene in the altercation around 10:50 a.m. Friday at a home of Lodi Road.

   The resident told deputies that the neighbor’s horse had escaped from his fence and bred his daughter’s eighteen-month-old mare. He stated that he had “tried to whip the stud,” but had little effect. He stated that he eventually fired three rounds from his handgun into the ground, spooking the stud away.

   At that point, the owner reports that the horse became engaged in a fight with the stud he owns, and that the two became entangled in the fence. He and neighbors, he said, eventually loosed both from the fencing.

   The owner stated that he went to his neighbor’s home to explain what had occurred and that the neighbor became angry, pushed him, swung his fist at him and ordered him to leave. He stated that he went home and shortly thereafter the neighbor and a number of family members showed up at his home, cursing and screaming. He reports that they made threats toward him and his children, saying that “they would kill them and taken them in the woods and leave them there.” He told deputies that he then obtained his gun and called for police assistance. At that point the neighbors reportedly left.

   The neighbor told deputies that he had been upset that the other man had “shot at” his horse. He said that the man wielded a gun while on his property and that he had ordered him to leave.

   At the current time deputies with the department’s Criminal Investigation Division are continuing to delve into the accusations.