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Last updated on Tuesday, December 12, 2017
(BIRDSEYE) - A man who fired gun shots near a small church south of Birdseye was found guilty of intimidation.
Josh McBride was arrested in February 2016 after he intimidated the congregation at Anderson Valley Christian Church on State Road 145. He was found guilty Friday on two counts of intimidation and two counts of disorderly conduct.
Sentencing is set for January 4, 2018, at 3 p.m.
The incident:
On February 28th police were called to the church after shots were fired.
Police reported that about 25 people were attending services when the shots were fired. No one was injured in the incident because the shots were not fired toward the church.
When officers arrived at the home just before 9 a.m.
McBride was using a backhoe to place a dead dog's decapitated body wrapped in a tarp to a large stone cross into order to send a message to church members.
McBride and the elders at the church were in an on-going dispute ever since one of McBride's dogs allegedly bit one of the elders in December.
According to police records, officers have been called to McBride's home and the church several times because of the on-going dispute.
Since the dispute began, McBride told police that he has had two dogs and two cats die after becoming seriously ill.
McBride told police that the dog he hung on the cross had been taken to a veterinarian in Louisville and had to be euthanized after suffering kidney failure. The veterinarian told McBride that the dog had been poisoned. He believes the elders at the church used rat poison to kill his pets.
McBride says the dog's head was removed to have a toxicology screening completed to determined what type of poison may have been used to kill the dog.
The church elder who was allegedly bitten took McBride to court, where McBride says the judge threw out the case.
The case began when deputies responded to a call of shots fired and explosions near a church in the southeastern portion of the county at about 8:48 a.m. Sunday, February 28.
The caller reported that the church congregation at the Anderson Valley Christian Church at 8084 South State Road 145 had witnessed three individuals later identified as McBride and two other individuals all who resided at 8042 South State Road 145, south of Birdseye at the time, shooting a three-round burst twice within the past five minutes. Dispatch was also told that at least two explosions had occurred.
When officers arrived at the church, they found a dead dog's decapitated body hanging from the bucket of a backhoe in front of a large stone cross located on the neighboring property.
McBride told the Dubois County Free Press at the time that the family has had two dogs and two cats sicken and die in recent weeks.The dog's head had been removed to be sent to a veterinarian in Louisville to determine the cause of death, McBride said.
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