A Naples, Florida man has been charged with manslaughter months after he fatally shot his neighbor in the dark, firing at what he believed was a bear near his backyard chicken coop, according to an arrest affidavit. Ariel Gonzalez Rodriguez, 25, was booked Tuesday, July 29, 2026, in the March death of Jason Sheffield, a father of four.
The charge — manslaughter with a firearm — closes a monthslong investigation that began with a frantic 911 call and a body discovered face down in the weeds. Rodriguez was 24 when the shooting occurred. An attorney for him did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Noise in the Dark
The sequence began around midnight, when Rodriguez’s wife, Katherin Hidalgo, heard a noise and grew worried that a wild animal was attacking the farm animals she keeps in the backyard, according to the affidavit. She woke her husband to investigate.
Rodriguez left the house carrying a smaller caliber rifle, investigators said. He returned to tell Hidalgo he believed the source of the noise might be a bear, then retrieved a larger caliber rifle before going back out. Bears can be found almost anywhere in the state, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The affidavit states that Rodriguez discharged one shot from the more powerful weapon into the earth. He then felt the sound was drawing nearer and feared an imminent attack, which led him to fire toward his neighbor’s yard at approximately waist height. Hidalgo told authorities she heard no fewer than two shots before Rodriguez returned indoors.
According to the affidavit, Rodriguez told his wife that whatever was making the noise had begun approaching him, so he fired what he described as a couple of warning shots. He did not go looking further that night. Investigators said he was afraid he might have wounded the animal.
Rodriguez told his wife he worried he may have injured the bear and chose not to investigate further, saying he would search the area when morning arrived, the affidavit states.
The Discovery at Daybreak
Around 8 a.m. the next day, Rodriguez walked his own property but saw nothing, according to the affidavit. He then crossed onto his neighbor’s land, where he found the man lying face down with blood on his body.
Rodriguez told his wife he had shot someone, then dialed 911, investigators said. He stayed on the line with dispatchers until deputies arrived. Investigators later described his call as panicked.
Rodriguez sounded distressed as he told the dispatcher he had discharged his weapon the previous evening at sounds he thought came from a bear, but he now feared he had struck his neighbor instead, investigators wrote in the affidavit.
When officers from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office reached the scene, Rodriguez and Hidalgo were placed in handcuffs, held for questioning and put into separate squad cars, the affidavit states. Authorities discovered Sheffield’s body in thick brush and weeds located behind a chicken coop. Blood was visible on the rear of his shirt.
The gap between the shooting in March and the arrest in July reflects the months of investigative work that followed. Rodriguez was ultimately brought in on the single charge of manslaughter with a firearm.
A Second Case With a Deadly Misperception
The Naples killing is not the only recent case in which a man told police he opened fire on a neighbor after mistaking him for a threat. In Milwaukee, Dominic Nosacek was charged after allegedly shooting his neighbor to death on Monday, Feb. 3, 2026, inside the stairwell of their shared apartment complex located at Astor and Knapp streets.
Nosacek told detectives he shot 50-year-old Angelo Nelson, claiming he thought Nelson posed a terrorist threat, a criminal complaint states. Prosecutors say Nosacek, 31, went back to his unit and worked on his tax filings following the shooting. Police discovered Nelson’s body in the stairwell.
Family and friends gathered Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2026, for a vigil, remembering Nelson as a man who lit up every room he entered. His cousin, Kashay Rideout, described him as everybody’s uncle and the life of the party. Nosacek is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and bail jumping.
The two cases, hundreds of miles apart, share a grim thread: an armed resident, a split-second conviction that danger was near, and a neighbor left dead. In Florida, that conviction centered on an animal that never appeared. By the time Rodriguez went looking in the daylight, the man he had feared in the dark was already gone.