Guys, I really need your help to understand what I should do. This can't be right or legal what happened to me.

I was hunting dove on my own property, which is in the county and not inside the city limits. All of a sudden I find myself facing five city police officers with guns drawn and pointing at me, shouting for me to drop my $1500 Benelli on the ground. They then frisked me and questioned me about what I was doing. They then checked my shotgun for migratory shell limits and checked and counted my doves before leaving. The only explanation I got was that someone had reported hearing sounds of shots and seeing a man with a shotgun in a field.

Now, guys, something does not seem kosher here. These cops penetrated 200 yards onto my private property without a warrant and without the presence of a Game Warden. I am in the county, not the city. There were city cops. I was legally hunting dove, during dove season, on my own property with no trespassing signs up. They did not have a warrant or my authority to come on my property, and there had been no crime committed or even reasonable causation. A man shooting in a field with a shotgun on private county property is not a CRIME. This is TEXAS. You can open carry a 44 Magnum into Walmart for crying out loud. Oh, did a mention, IT IS DOVE SEASON!

By my estimation, these cops broke so many laws and procedures it is not even funny. They were outside their jurisdiction. They invaded private property without a warrant and without seeking authorization. The pulled their weapons on an innocent citizen that was in the legal process of hunting with not even a sign or a report of any kind of a crime, or any sign of a threat. They checked for compliance with game laws and regulations, which is not their responsibility or in their jurisdiction.

Are there any lawyers, police, or game wardens on here that can clear this up and tell me whether I am right or wrong. This is American and I live in Texas. Can the police just pull their weapon on an innocent citizen anytime they want to like this when there is no evidence of a crime at all? Or did a wake up in Nazi Germany?

First thing is it sounds you complied with them which is a very smart thing to. If it were me I would get an appointment with the police chief and go meet with him/her and describe what happened. It these LEO's were out of their jurisdiction that chief will know and can get their side of the story. I can see one rouge officer but 5 of them at once screwing up is odd. Just my opinion.

I would file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office....

City PD have no jurisdiction in the county. Hire an attorney.

The open fields doctrine gives law enforcement much more latitude on entering someone’s property that is not in the immediate vicinity of a residence. The rest of the procedures you describe seem way beyond what would be reasonable and acceptable practices.

City officers actually have the same authority to detain, arrest, etc. in the county as they do within the city limits. Department policies and interlocal agreements will generally determine how much, if any, they leave the city limits. As far as pulling their guns, that usually has more to do with officer safety than whether an offense has been committed or not. I would hope they did that based on possibly embellished information relayed to them, but who knows?
You can contact a supervisor at the agency and they can pull CAD notes, patrol video, and reports to figure out what happened.

At the very least you should file an official complaint to the department and state.
Pulling guns with zero cause is a violation. If you were dove hunting and did not wave your gun at them in a threatening manor they should have not pointed guns at you.
I filed a complaint with the Tulsa police over this many years ago and they acted upon the complaint by sending the officer back through training.
Just because you have a gun doesn’t warrant drawing down on you at all.

100% This Texas. You can carry a gun around all day long. It is not a crime. It is a legally protected right. Even more so when you are dressed in camo, in a field, hunting dove, during dove season. What kind of idiot does a cop have to be to not know that it is dove season, or where the dang city limits are.

You did not say how much property you own, or what is next to you. This happens all the time when neighbors don't want you shooting next to them. If you have 10 acres or 200 acres there is a huge difference,, and how close are the houses on the next property. Basically your story leaves out most of the relevant info. When hunters are shooting and there is a subdivision bordering the property(or a railroad track) -------- yes, you are legal, and yes the game warden/cops are going to harass you. Game warden gave my friend in Temple a ticket ,, he claimed the BB's were falling on a house 300 yards away. Which is absurd, but that is what the ticket was for. I think it was $175. My friend debated whether to fight it or not ( he is a lawyer) , his final decision was to pay it, thinking if he fought it the warden would target him in the future.

I don't like the tone of your response. I am a law-abiding citizen who has never even had a misdemeanor. I was legally hunting on my land. Please stop trying to find some reason to believe that these idiot cops had any justifiable reason to do anything they did. I can read between the lines of your comment, sir. I don't like what I see there.

What they did was wrong by any reasoning. Whether it was legal or not, is my only question. I don't believe it was, but I would need to hear from lawyer to know for sure.

How did they know you were a law-abiding citizen hunting on your own land?

If my BBs were falling on someone else's house, the GW would have issued a ticket. The "Relevant details" were given. The cops said they were responding to reports of a man shooting in a field with a shotgun. No ticket was issued, no charges were made, no evidence of any crime. Those are the ONLY details that matter. I said the cops walked in 200 YARDS to get two where I was. That detail tells you how far I was from the road and gives you some perspective of how big the land is. It is actually 500 acres, not that it matters, because I said in my OP that I was LEGALLY hunting.

What you are trying to find is something I may have been doing wrong, so that you can find a defense for what the cops did. The fact that they neither arrested me, nor fined me, is all the proof you need to know that I was doing NOTHING ILLEGAL. So, stop searching for what you will never find. These cops were total idiots. No excuses are available for them.

Ever heard of this little thing called, "Innocent until proven guilty"? All citizens are assumed to be law-abiding, unless there is reasonable cause to believe otherwise. A hunter in full camo, hunting dove on private property, during dove season, outside the city limits, is NOT "Reasonable Cause".

Just stop. There is no defense for what they did.

Seems you have had history with trespassing and presumed poachers that required the GW and Sheriff to be called. Again..how did they know your were law abiding citizen when you had called them out once before?

"""" This can't be right or legal what happened to me."""-----------You can't possibly believe that everything that cops and game wardens do is right and legal ! ( which is 2 entirely different things ( right and legal)) ----- calm down and face reality.

In your original post you asked if there were any police officers, attorneys or game wardens on here who can tell you whether you're right or wrong in your assessment of the situation. Folks on here are like Grizz provided you with information that obviously you're not aware of and you are unhappy with his response. It sounds as though your mind is already made up. Go make a complaint with their internal affairs unit if you feel wronged, but don't be angry with folks on here for answering the questions that you asked.

Seems like you have a lot of run ins with the GW and law maybe it’s you not them.

You are lashing out at everyone on this thread. Maybe you should calm down before continuing.

You obviously misread the hell out of my statement. There is nothing between the lines anywhere in my response. I was actually responding to a couple of different posts, not just yours. I was posting general facts about jurisdiction and why officers might pull their guns. I don't know what the original caller told dispatch and you don't either. What if the caller said they just passed your land and you shot at them? All the officers would know is what dispatch tells them. Just a possibility to explain their response, but as I said in my response, who knows? If you'll look at the last sentence I offered you a suggestion to get all of the information available for the call.

You need to just stop before you embarrass yourself. The GW is the proper authority to call if you thinking there is a hunting or fishing violation. The GW will call the Sheriff, if the GW thinks there may be a criminal violation as well. They county Sherrif is the proper authority to call when you are outside the city limits, NOT the City Police. You seem to think that all of these are the SAME thing, which demonstrates a lack of understanding on your part.

Besides this, the property where this latest thing occurred is a totally different piece of property. That is what you get for assuming.

Regardless, hunting dove during dove season is not a crime. Being in a field with on private property with a shotgun is not a crime. Nothing I was doing was a crime. What don't you understand about this? If I were committing a crime, I would have been arrested or fined. You do understand this, right. Since neither of those things happened, that means the cops could find NOTHING I was doing wrong. Get this through your head. If the only reason they were there is as they said, "Report of a man shooting in a field with a shotgun", then they had NO reason to be there because THAT IS NOT A CRIME!!!!!

They responded to a report of a NON-CRIME, trespassed on private property without a warrant or justifiable cause, used the threat of lethal force, when no threat was presented to them. There is no excuse or defence for what they did.

You are quite angry. Rather than just lash out, it would seem reasonable to call the PD and ask (calmly) why the officers went to your place and felt it necessary to have guns drawn. There is a reason why so many cops showed up at your place with guns drawn, so find out what the reason was. I know I’d like to hear their reasoning, so get back to us when you know.

I am only lashing out at other hunters that think that it is okay to for the police to show up and harass hunters in the legal pursuit of game and threaten to kill them, and who are trying to find any possible reason to excuse these cops behaviors. Yes, I did ask for the advice of Police, GW, or a Lawyer, none of which has responded so far. The only responses have been from people that have no legal advice or real experience to offer, but have a TON of unfounded bias opinions to try to judge me with, because in their puny brains, the police are NEVER wrong.

I had five guns pointed at me this morning for no reason. I think I have good reason to be a little upset. So deal with it.

Again...how did they know you were a law abiding citizen when they got the call? How did the person who called know that you were just dove hunting? How did the police know you were"just dove hunting?" Should they just assume? The police knew you were armed and since someone had called in they heard shots fired...how would you want a LEO to respond to a call of shots being fired? You seem to be the one who needs to understand what the definition of assume means. You assumed they would know you were dove hunting when the call they received probably told them they heard shooting. You did a heck of lot more assuming than I have.