82-year-old man arrested for shooting BB gun at neighbor’s house because children were making too much noise playing outside

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Richard Curtis Moyer, 82, was arrested yesterday after allegedly shooting a BB gun at his neighbor’s house, hitting a window, because he was annoyed that children were making too much noise in the back yard.

At about 7:40 p.m., an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a home in the Fletcher Park neighborhood, where the victim said he heard a “loud crack” on the living room window, right behind the couch where he was sitting. The victim said he went outside and saw Moyer standing in his back yard with a “Red Rider”-style BB gun in his hands; he said he asked Moyer if he shot something at his window and Moyer said, “I’ll blow the back window up unless those kids don’t shut up.”

The deputy reported that a camera in the back yard captured the incident and showed children playing in the back yard when a loud noise was heard, followed by a “loud high pitch of impact against a hard surface.” Another camera inside the house reportedly showed the victim sitting on the couch when a loud cracking sound was heard and the victim reacted to the noise.

Post Miranda, Moyer reportedly admitted that he had grabbed a BB gun and shot several times toward the victim’s house; he said he was shooting at the fence because he wanted the victim’s children to stop yelling.

The deputy reported that shooting at the six-foot fence would result in a trajectory that “would have placed the projectile striking at chest to head level.”

Moyer has been charged with shooting a deadly missing into an occupied dwelling. He has no criminal history, and Judge Meshon Rawls ordered him released on his own recognizance to Mental Health Court, but he is required to find an alternate residence before he is released.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.