Gainesville Police arrested a local man Friday after they said he shot another man in the back with a rifle.
At about 3:45 a.m., Tanner Wesley Abbott, 20, shot the man in the 3500 block of Northwest Eighth Ave. after a fight at the downtown bar Cowboys Saloon, said Gainesville Police Lt. Tscharna Senn.
After Abbott got in a fist fight with another person, the man and two witnesses wanted to confront him, according to a police report. They found his truck, and then followed him home.
Once there, Abbott left his car and loaded a single round into his .22-caliber rifle, according to the report. He then walked outside brandishing the rifle.
As the trio fled, Abbott then fired into the back window of their vehicle, shattering the glass and striking the man in his back, Senn said.
The man was taken to UF Health Shands Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, she said.
Abbott told police he meant to fire a warning shot, according to the report. He acknowledged he should have called 911 as the men followed him and remained in his house instead of confronting them.
Police arrested him on charges of aggravated battery and shooting a deadly missile into a vehicle, according to the report. Authorities took him to the Alachua County Jail where he was released Saturday on a $35,000 bond.
Abbott declined to comment on the arrest.
