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St. Landry School Board member arrested for shooting neighbor

St. Landry Parish Sheriff
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An Arnaudville man was arrested this weekend, accused of shooting his neighbor in the leg while trying to shoot the man's dog.

Joshua Boudreaux, 42, was booked with negligent injury and illegal use of weapons. He's a member of the St. Landry Parish School Board.

The investigation revealed that Joshua Boudreaux shot towards his neighbor’s dog that was on his property and struck the neighbor instead. The neighbor who was standing in his own backyard sustained a minor injury to his leg and was transported to an area hospital. Boudreaux informed the deputies that he was the one who called the incident in, and had the shooting recorded on his home security system.

Deputies reviewed a video that showed that the dog was on the property of Boudreaux when he grabbed his firearm and approached the dog as it began to flee by backing up. Boudreaux then fired one round from his firearm and the projectile ricocheted off of a piece of concrete and struck the owner of the dog. Boudreaux told deputies that law enforcement and animal control had been at his home on numerous occasions and even picked up the dog due to its aggressive behavior.

Boudreaux told deputies he has a child with disabilities who loves dogs and feared for her safety.

During the interview with Boudreaux’s neighbor, he stated he was picking up trash in his back yard when he heard a “bang” and realized he had been shot. The neighbor advised deputies that Boudreaux had no right to shoot his dog but would drop the charges if Boudreaux would write a check to him for $100,000 dollars. When deputies advised the victim that no check was going to be given to him, the victim stated he was not dropping charges.

Boudreaux stated he did not see the neighbor in his yard prior to him shooting toward the dog.