Game officers: Hunter cited for illegal hunting shot at them
December 29, 2007
By PATRICIO G. BALONA
Staff Writer
A Pierson man who had just been cited for illegally hunting in a
state wildlife management area discharged his firearm in the direction
of departing state wildlife officers, a Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission official said Friday.
David Glenn Dreggors, 48, of Pierson was charged with improper
exhibition of a dangerous weapon and taken to the Volusia County Branch
Jail, wildlife commission Capt. Gregg Eason said.
Dreggors was released Friday night on $1,000 bail, a jail spokesman
said.
Just before the shooting incident, Dreggors and three other hunters
whom authorities did not identify, were issued citations charging them
with allowing dogs to pursue wildlife and attempting to take deer during
a time it's prohibited in a wildlife area, Eason said.
After the bullet whizzed by the wildlife officers, the officers
returned to where they had issued the citations and found Dreggors
laughing and saying, "I messed up. I didn't mean to do it," Eason said.
The officers, after investigating, do not believe it was an accident and
charged Dreggors with the additional firearm offense, Eason said.
Dreggors fired a .308 caliber Browning semiautomatic rifle, state
wildlife Lt. Bill Hightower said.
"He is charged with displaying a gun in a careless, angry and
threatening manner," Hightower said.
The incident occurred in north Volusia County at 12:15 p.m., 1 1/2
miles north of State Road 40 and east of State Road 11. This is an area
where the Northwest Hunting Club hunting grounds border the Lake George
Wildlife Management Area, Hightower said.
Four officers in three wildlife commission vehicles responded to the
area after hearing hunters on CB radios talking about dogs chasing deer
into the wildlife management area, Hightower said.
"They were actively trying to take deer. They were on a wildlife area
with guns, " Hightower said. "The dogs were chasing a couple bucks, and
the deer ran into the wildlife area, and the men followed on roads
closed to vehicle traffic and hunting with dogs."
After issuing citations to several of the hunters, officers Jeff Gier
and Alex Alvarez were leaving in their vehicle when they heard a gun
discharge and heard a bullet "whiz" by them, Hightower said.
A group of the hunters who were cited by the officers declined to be
interviewed for this story, though one said, "There's two sides to a
story."
Wildlife officers also seized shotguns and rifles that were hidden in
the woods after a truck was found stuck in the mud inside the wildlife
management area, Hightower said. A sheriff's helicopter and a wildlife
commission fixed-wing airplane flew over the area to make sure no other
vehicles or hunters were in the wildlife management area, Hightower
said.
