Palm Harbor (WTFF) – A man was arrested in Pinellas County after shooting his rifle into a neighbor’s house.
It was around 3:00 in the morning on Sunday, November 12, when somebody called the cops on Stephen Jonas.
The 51-year-old man was at his home at 1520 Canopy Oaks Boulevard, shooting his rifle in the middle of the night. He kept popping off rounds, one after another.
He put a bullet through a neighboring house south of him, but nobody was shot.
Multiple calls were made from neighbors reporting several gunshots, and when the deputies arrived they heard about five gunshots themselves.
Deputies set up a perimeter outside his home. They tried to make contact with him and it took about 8 hours for him to cooperate. At around 11:22 am, Stephen walked out and was taken into custody. He was modest, had clothes on, and didn’t fight back or spit on them, which is better than most people around here.
The home was searched in case there were any injured inside. Nobody else was in there.
A .223 rifle was found inside the home, along with stockpiles of other weapons, according to the news release from pcsoweb.com. Nearly half of all the guns in the U.S. are owned by only 3 percent of the population (theguardian.com), so it only makes sense that someone randomly shooting in the middle of the night would have a personal arsenal. In life, it’s often all or nothing.
Not surprisingly, they also found drugs. In the Tampa Bay area, drugs and guns go hand in hand and must always be enjoyed together.
Now, shooting guns in the middle of the night is pretty normal here. What elevated Stephen from a Florida man to Florida Man was his excuse for the gunfire…
While he was in custody, he told investigators that he was shooting at rats in his backyard.
Jonas was charged with one count of Shooting Into An Occupied Dwelling and was taken to the Pinellas County Jail.
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