On Saturday, Hillsborough County deputies arrested 32-year-old Miguel Reyes Rodriguez after he allegedly walked into a neighbor’s home with a gun and shot the neighbor’s dog. Deputies say the confrontation followed an earlier incident in which the dog bit a small child. The child was not injured, according to law-enforcement officials, but the dog did not survive.
In a post on X from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, deputies said Rodriguez armed himself with a rifle, unlawfully entered the neighboring residence and opened fire on the animal. He was taken into custody the same day and faces counts listed by the agency as discharge of a firearm in public or on residential property, aggravated cruelty to animals and armed burglary of a dwelling.
Sheriff Chad Chronister sharply criticized the alleged vigilante response in the agency’s X post, writing, “No one has the right to take the law into their own hands,” the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said. The post did not include information about bond or upcoming court dates, and investigators say the case remains under review…