Five arrested for hunting in Maumelle city limits
December 30, 2010
Five people have been arrested and charged with hunting inside Maumelle.
Maumelle police Chief Sam Williams said hunting inside the city limits is illegal and extremely dangerous. Bullets can travel a great distance depending upon their type and caliber, he said. Some high-powered rifle ammunition can travel up to a mile, Williams said.
He said hunters are responsible for the bullet even after it hits an animal. Ammunition can go through an animal or miss its target and might continue on for some time, he said.
Most of the men arrested were duck hunting with shotguns, which won’t normally carry as far, Williams said.
Hunting is a dangerous sport, Williams said, but when you add the proximity of large amounts of people nearby you add a risk no one wants to see. A pleasure hunting trip could end up with a third party severely wounded or dead and the hunter spending time in jail rather than enjoying their hunting, he said.
Greg Jumper, 32, of Conway was arrested on Dec. 22 and charged with discharging a firearm within the city limits for allegedly hunting on the peninsula on the Arkansas River. Two other hunters with Jumper, Russell Dziubanek, 26, and Chad Roller, 26 were not charged because Officer Bryan Felix, Lt. Jim Hansard and Wildlife Officer Spurlock saw them in a boat and they had no ducks and officers did not observe them discharge a firearm.
Residents who live alongside the Rector Break of the Arkansas River had complained for several days of being awakened early several mornings by the sound of gun fire on the peninsula.
Also on Dec. 22, Public Works employees called police when they heard gunshots near their facility at 600 Hyman Drive early that morning.
Officer Debra Bagely said she and Officer Felix observed four men in camouflage clothing in the pond directly behind the Entergy Station and the Maumelle Public works Building. She said they fired shotguns within plain sight of the Public Works Building. In fact, Bagely said they parked their car in the Public Works parking lot.
All three men told police they fired their weapons at ducks and they had two ducks they had shot and retrieved. A fourth man walked out of the woods later. All four, Terry Hanson, 29, Taylor Wilkinson, 28, William Ellis, 20 and an unnamed juvenile were charged with discharging a weapon inside city limits.
All of the hunters had hunting licenses and the appropriate duck stamps, officers said.
All four are scheduled to appear in Maumelle District court on the Maumelle charges on Jan. 18.