SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
El Reg reports
A father who shot down a drone that was hovering over his family home in Kentucky has been cleared of all charges.
Dad-of-two William Merideth thought the quadcopter was spying on his daughters in their yard in Hillview and blasted the gizmo out of the sky with a shotgun. That earned him the title "Drone Slayer" from pro-privacy quarters.
Merideth was arrested shortly after in July and charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment.
He appeared before the Bullitt County District Court on Monday this week and after a two and a half hour hearing, Judge Rebecca Ward dismissed the case against him.
"I was in my right to protect my family and my property", said Merideth.
The judge agreed, telling the court: "He had a right to shoot at this drone."
David Boggs, who owned the downed drone, was hoping to get the cost of the machine in compensation and said he will ask the Commonwealth's Attorney's office to take the case to a grand jury--or consider pursuing a civil case against Merideth.
Previous: Man Arrested for Shooting Down Drone Flying Over His Property
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 29 2015, @01:25PM
Seems to me if you shoot a drone with a shotgun, the pellets and the battery will go away from you unless you shoot straight up.
You are wrong. There isn't enough energy in the shot gun ammo to severely adjust the momentum of the aircraft. It will either suffer a control systems failure, structural failure of the frame, or structure failure of the propellers/propulsion units and fall out of the sky because it can't maintain orientation. Failures like this are rather random, the air craft comes down and will land in a circle with a size dependent on how high it is. It won't necessarily be directed away from the shooter and it certainly won't be reliably aimed as if you are playing some kind of game of billiards with a shotgun and "drone."
Full disclosure: I shoot guns and fly remote control airplanes and helicopters (among other things), though I have no interest in either flying or shooting while trespassing.