Kentucky man arrested after shooting down drone

A Kentucky man who shot down a drone spotted hovering over his property has been arrested and charged which first degree criminal mischief and first degree wanton endangerment.

Forty-seven-year-old William Meredith of Hillview was reportedly taken into custody by police on Sunday after shooting the drone in mid-air and causing it to crash in a nearly field, according to BBC News and WDRB News reports.

Meredith said that his daughters were on the back deck of their house when the spotted the drone and told their father about it. He told the BBC that he fired three shots while the drone was in the air, causing it to crash in the field behind his house.

The drone owner told WDRB that he was just trying to get pictures of a friend’s house and that the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) cost more than $1,800. After it was shot down, he went over to Meredith’s house and confronted the man.

Privacy rights vs. safety concerns

Meredith, who was booked into Bullitt County Detention Center and released on Monday, told reporters that he was concerned that the drone was invading his privacy and that of his daughters, and that he felt he was “well within my rights as an American citizen to defend my property.”

Likewise, neighbor Kim VanMeter told WDRB that the drone had been “hovering above our house” and “stayed for a few moments” before moving on. She added that she has a 16-year-old daughter who is frequently sunbathes, and that it was creepy to have a drone with a camera in the area. “You should have privacy in your own backyard,” VanMeter explained.

The drone owner and four other men eventually confronted Meredith, who said that he warned the men that he would shoot them if they came towards him and threatened him. The police were called and took Meredith into custody for discharging a firearm in the city. The man said he was disappointed by their response, and that he will pursue legal action against the drone owners.

“He didn’t just fly over. If he had been moving and just kept moving, that would have been one thing – but when he come directly over our heads, and just hovered there, I felt like I had the right,” Meredith said. “When you’re in your own property, within a six-foot privacy fence, you have the expectation of privacy… We don’t know if he was looking at the girls. We don’t know if he was looking for something to steal. To me, it was the same as trespassing.”

However, FAA spokesman Les Dorr warned against shooting down drones for any reason. “An unmanned aircraft hit by gunfire could crash,” Dorr told WDRB, “causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air.”

—–

Image credit: Thinkstock