A Florida man has been charged with manslaughter four months after police say he fatally shot his neighbor, having mistaken him for a bear near his chicken coop late at night.
An arrest warrant for 25-year-old Ariel Gonzalez Rodriguez was issued on July 28 by the Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in connection with the death of his 30-year-old neighbor, Jason Sheffield.
According to an arrest affidavit, Gonzalez Rodriguez called emergency dispatchers on the morning of March 27 to report the shooting.
“Ariel was frantic as he informed the dispatcher that he shot off a gun yesterday at a noise he believed to be a bear, but now believed he accidentally shot his neighbor,” the affidavit states, noting that he informed dispatchers the victim was on the adjacent property.
Investigators said the incident began around midnight when Gonzalez Rodriguez’s wife, Katherin Alejo Hidalgo, woke him after hearing loud sounds outside. She told officers she feared a wild animal was attempting to attack their farm animals and chicken coop.
Gonzalez Rodriguez initially stepped outside with a .22-caliber rifle and fired warning shots into the ground. After continuing to hear noises coming from Sheffield’s property, he went back inside and grabbed a .30-06 rifle, loading it with two rounds.
According to the affidavit, Gonzalez Rodriguez walked toward the chicken coop near the northeast edge of his property. Unable to see due to the dark, he “raised the rifle to about waist level and shot off a round toward the direction of the adjacent property” where he heard movement.
After the shot, the noise stopped. Fearing he had wounded a wild animal that might attack, Gonzalez Rodriguez left the scene. The following morning, he spotted Sheffield “lying face down in the vegetation.” The chief medical examiner subsequently ruled Sheffield’s death a homicide.
Gonzalez Rodriguez told investigators that he and Sheffield had no ongoing disputes, adding that both families had been grilling together in Sheffield’s backyard just hours prior to the shooting.
Sheffield leaves behind his wife and four children. In an obituary, family members remembered him as a “gifted guitarist, singer, and songwriter,” writing that “music was his language of love, one he shared with his children, his wife, his parents, and anyone lucky enough to hear him play.”
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