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Police: Man May Face Charges After Shooting Woodchuck At Fairfield Home

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield police officers responding to a report that an elderly man had shot a dog on his property at 2 p.m. Wednesday arrived to find the homeowner holding a 22-caliber rifle, police said.

Fairfield Police officers are serving a search warrant at a house on Black Rock Turnpike after a woodchuck was shot on the property.

Fairfield Police officers are serving a search warrant at a house on Black Rock Turnpike after a woodchuck was shot on the property.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith

The complaint came in as a 911 call to the house on Black Rock Turnpike near the Merritt Parkway, police said.

At the time of the initial report, the police department was getting a lot of information, including that a second dog had been killed and that the man was threatening people on the property and threatening to kill himself, Fairfield Police Chief Gary MacNamara said.

For a brief period of time Wednesday afternoon, the man, not yet identified by police, refused to put the gun down, police said.

While taking the man into custody, he was injured, police said. He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital in Bridgeport for a cut on his head, and police wanted him evaluated before pressing charges, police said.

The incident lasted about 30 minutes, MacNamara said, and briefly caused the closure of a small part of the northern end of Black Rock Turnpike near the Merritt  Parkway.

After a brief investigation, officers determined that a tenant in an apartment on the property had gone outside after hearing shots, and then saw an animal on the floor of the garage and the homeowner with a rifle in his hands.

“There appears to be some kind of on going eviction issue at the residence and for whatever reason escalated today,” MacNamara said.

The man with the gun told the woman that her cat would be next and waived the rifle in her direction, MacNamara said, which prompted her to run inside and call the police.

“She relaying information to police that he’s wandering around the house carrying the rifle and that’s when our officers came in,” MacNamara said.

The man will likely be charged with threatening, discharging a firearm and reckless endangerment, he said. But no charges had been filed as of late Wednesday afternoon.

By 3:30 p.m., officers were executing a search warrant for any additional weapons that might be in the house.

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