Lakewood Man Who Shoots, Kills Deer at Lake Shore Towers Gets Five Days in Jail

The former manager of the Lake Shore Towers apartments was sentenced Monday to five days in jail for shooting a deer and her fawn Nov. 6 as nearby residents watched them eat acorns.

Garwood Wilson Jr., 46, of Wilmington, received the sentence from Lakewood Municipal Court Judge Patrick Carroll.

Wilson to charges of cruelty to animals, illegally killing deer and obstruction of official business — all misdemeanors.

However, Wilson is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court for a felony charge of possessing a firearm under disability.

In addition to the jail sentence, Wilson was fined $500 and given probation for one year.

Wilson said that, as the property manager, he only wanted to scare the deer off the property. He told the judge he was only firing “warning shots,” then admitted he was trying “to shoot (the deer) in the butt.”

“It was a very stupid thing I did,” Wilson said.

Carroll responded: “No, it wasn’t. It was a criminal act.”

“You could have shot and killed somebody,” Carroll added. “How do you know someone wasn’t following the deer up the cliff?”

According to cleveland.com — which has been following the story since it broke — several residents of the apartments at 12506 Edgewater Drive were watching a buck, a doe and her fawn eating acorns in the yard behind the building on the morning of Nov. 6.

Carroll said that Wilson put neighbors in danger when he began firing the weapon.

More from cleveland.com: 

Witnesses said they heard three or four shots. The doe was struck and fell off a cliff. The fawn dropped dead. The buck ran off. A police officer climbed down to the doe, whose back was broken, and shot her in the head.

 After initially denying it, Wilson later told police that he struck the deer with what he called a "lucky" shot.

Wilson and his wife — who were both managers of the apartment complex — were reportedly both fired from their jobs.