A Florida man, known as his neighborhood’s “hot-head”, stands accused of fatally shooting his neighbor over his pet cat, police said.
Clifton Anthony Bliss Jr., 58, reportedly grabbed a rifle on Wednesday and went to James Arland Taylor Jr.’s residence where he shot him to the chest.
“Through their investigation, detectives learned that Bliss became angry when his neighbor’s cat had entered his property. Bliss then retrieved a firearm and threatened to shoot the cat,” the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.
“The owner of the cat, James Arland Taylor Jr., asked Bliss not to shoot the cat, at which time Bliss shot and killed Taylor.”
Bliss’s wife told detectives that the suspect shot Taylor because he “beat him up,” a claim that other residents of the neighborhood didn’t support.
They “confirmed that the Defendant had a history of confronting other people in the neighborhood about animal-related issues, in the months leading up to this incident.”
Bliss was described as “hot-head of the neighborhood, and had gotten into numerous altercations with neighbors and always had a firearm in his possession.”
