A man who allegedly shot two of his neighbor’s pet pigeons with an air gun and planned to eat them in a residential area of Hualien County’s Jian Township (吉安) has been arrested for public endangerment, local authorities said on Wednesday.
The Hualien Police Bureau said it had received a report on Thursday last week from a 70-year-old man, surnamed Lo (羅), saying that two of his pet pigeons had been shot to death while outside of their enclosure between feeding times.
Surveillance video footage from Lo’s property showed that a man appeared to have fired the shots in the direction of his house, which caused Lo and his neighbors to fear for their safety, police said.
Photo courtesy of Jian Precinct via CNA
After reviewing the footage, officers from the bureau’s Nanhua Police Station identified the shooter as another man in his 70s, surnamed Lin (林), who lived nearby.
In the video, Lin can be seen arriving near the house on a motorcycle and firing at the birds as they perched on a telephone pole in front of Lo’s house, police said.
After obtaining a warrant from the Hualien District Court, police searched Lin’s house, where they seized an air rifle as evidence.
Lin told the officers he had no quarrel with Lo, and had simply wanted to shoot the pigeons to eat them.
The pigeons happened to fall onto Lo’s house after being shot, making it impossible to retrieve them, Lin said.
Upon further testing, it was determined that the muzzle energy on Lin’s gun was within legal limits, police said.
However, as Lin’s shooting of the weapon in the direction of Lo’s home constituted a threat to public safety, he was referred to the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of public endangerment and causing property damage, police said.
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