By Joe Johnson
An Athens man was arrested last weekend for firing a gun during dog poop dispute, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
The incident occurred shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday, then a 46-year-old Jasmine Trail was walking his two small dogs on Wisteria Way and was letting his pets relieve themselves outside of a residence when 65-year-old Frederick Anthony Hudson came out of his home, located across the street on Mint Place, and yelled, “Are you going to pick that dog (poop) up?” according to the report.
The dog walker reportedly yelled back, saying, “What are you going to do, come over here and make me,” at which time Hudson replied, “okay,” then went into his home and came back out with handgun, according to the police report.
The dog walker told police that he and Hudson exchanged some words before Hudson pointed the gun directly at him and fired a bullet into the ground, according to the report, which noted that the dog walker too several pictures of Hudson, including one showing him pointing a gun at the victim.
When questioned at his home, Hudson told an officer that when he saw the man walking his dogs, he went outside to make sure that the animals didn’t relieve themselves on his property, according to the police report. Hudson said the man, who was white called him a racial slur that “really bothered him” and challenged Hudson to come to him.
Hudson admitted that he then retrieved a gun from his home and pointed it at the other man confronted the man during another verbal exchange. He said he noticed that the other man was carrying a “poop bag,” and after turning away to go inside his home, Hudson said he fired a bullet into the ground to make sure the pistol’s chamber was empty before going inside, according to the report.
Hudson told me several times that he goes to the range to shoot practice targets and stated, ‘If I wanted to hit him I could have,’” the responding officer wrote in the report.
The officer was unable to find a shell casing or a hole in the ground where Hudson claimed to have fired his gun, but he arrested Hudson based on the pictures the other man took of Hudson pointing the gun and also on Hudson’s own admission that he fired the gun, the report noted.
Hudson was arrested on the misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct and pointing a firearm at another person.
He was released from the county jail later that afternoon, upon posting bonds totaling $4,050, according to the Clarke County Sheriff's Office.