Kentucky Man Arrested for Shooting Down a Drone Over His Property

A drone with a mounted GoPro camera.

Hillview police arrested William H. Merideth, 47, was arrested Sunday at his home.

[OTHER NEWS: NOx cloud prompts evacuation of business on South 12th Street].

Neighbors did not see a gun and found the victim, who they say is a 16-year-old male, in a chair outside the home. Then the drone flew over Merideth’s backyard. “I just think you should have privacy in your own backyard”, she said.

She wasn’t the only one on the block concerned about the tiny unmanned aircraft.

Here, Merideth, who operates a local trucking company, said that he had seen “two or three” different drones in his backyard previously over the last year and was disturbed by their presence. A short time later, the police arrived and Merideth was unhappy with the police’s response.

Merideth came outside with a shotgun and saw the drone over the neighbor’s yard and determined not to shoot unless it came back over his property.

“They had it low enough that he hit it”, Diebold said. “It’s an invasion of privacy”, he added. “As Americans, we have a right to defend our rights and property”.

So are there rules for drones? The FAA has guidelines for recreational drone use, which include always flying them within sight and clear of people and obstacles. “They were pretty irate”, Merideth said. “It was hovering, I would never have shot it if it was flying”.

In a case they said was a first for them, officers with the Hillview Police Department charged Merideth with wanton endangerment and criminal mischief. It is against the law to discharge a firearm, within city limits, according to a Hillview ordinance, unless you are a law enforcement officer or the action is in self defense.

“Within a minute or so, here it came”. “We don’t know if he was looking at the girls…To me, it was the same as trespassing”.

Do you feel Merideth was justified in his actions? ‘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.’.

Merideth says he has hired an attorney and plans to fight the charges.