Monrovia Neighborhood Deer Slayer Faces Charges

MONROVIA, CA – A Duarte man caught on camera shooting a young deer with a bow and arrow near a Monrovia residential neighborhood is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on four criminal charges.

Michael Jackson Rodriguez, 33, was charged Nov. 6 with one felony count of filing false information, along with one misdemeanor count each of discharge of a deadly weapon within 150 yards of an occupied dwelling, possession of wildlife taken unlawfully and shooting a bow and arrow in Monrovia.

Prosecutors allege that Rodriguez shot the deer on Sept. 14 and filed false information two days later with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Rodriguez told CBS2 that he first shot the animal in the forest, but the buck didn't die because he hit it near its spine. He followed the deer into the residential neighborhood so he could kill it.

"I was following up a wounded animal and taking him out so he wasn't suffering anymore," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez told a reporter for the station that he had put the deer in his freezer and planned to use it to feed his family.

A neighbor caught the shooting on his home surveillance camera.

"I couldn't believe it. I'm like, 'You've got to be kidding me,"' neighbor Chuck Tapert told CBS2. Somebody took a shot at a deer right in front of our house in a residential neighborhood?

The video shows an archer shooting a deer in a forested area next to Tapert's house, followed by the deer running away down the street. The deer then died.

If convicted as charged, Rodriguez could face up to 3 1/2 years in jail, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

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City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock