A rural Bloomfield man who allegedly shot his own son with a BB gun twice, once in the back and once in the neck, was arrested Sunday night.

Jason Tyrel Haywood, 36, Bloomfield, was arrested by Greene County Sheriff’s Deputy Heather Wood following an investigation into the shooting incident by GCSD Deputy James Carpenter.

This incident occurred in mid-August and after Carpenter’s investigation, a criminal case was filed against Haywood and a warrant issued for his arrest back on August 21. But officers were unable to locate Haywood and the warrant remained outstanding for some time. Later this fall, Carpenter obtained new address information and the warrant was re-issued with the updated info.

Carpenter was first dispatched after a woman called the sheriff’s department to report her son had been shot with a BB gun by the child’s father.

When Carpenter talked to the woman, she said she had a child in common with Haywood. The child was seven-years-old at the time of this incident. She said when Haywood brought her son home a day early from a weekend stay, her son was upset, crying, and said his father had shot him twice with a BB gun. The woman said when she asked Haywood what was wrong, he told her the child was upset because he accidentally shot him twice with a BB gun.

Carpenter interviewed the child and reported the child told him all his BB guns were laid out on a porch and when he was walking away from the porch toward a tool shed, he felt something hit him in the back, it hurt, he started crying and he saw his dad standing on the porch. He said his dad said he didn’t mean to shoot him in the back and he was sorry. He said he didn’t know why his dad would shoot him.

The child allegedly said after that, he started walking toward the woods but turned around and when he turned around, he was shot again in the neck, and saw his father standing on the porch.

Carpenter took photos of the child’s injuries, and he reported the incident to the Department of Child Services (DCS). Carpenter and a DCS caseworker then went to Haywood’s residence to talk to him but he was not home so Deputy Zach Goad then went with the DCS caseworker late that night to talk to him.

Carpenter said Deputy Goad reported Haywood admitted he was guilty of shooting his son with a BB gun. Haywood allegedly said he heard his son talking about how he was in pain so he offered to shoot him with a BB gun, so he would know what being shot with a BB gun felt like. Haywood allegedly said it was a poor decision.

The preliminary charges against Haywood include:

Domestic battery on a person less than 14 years old, a Level 6 felony, and
Neglect of a dependent – places dependent in a situation that endangers the dependent, a Level 6 felony.

Haywood was booked in to the Greene County Jail on Sunday, December 16, at 8:29 p.m. and will be scheduled to appear in Greene Superior Court for an initial hearing. His bond was set at $8,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. As of mid-day Monday, he had not yet posted bond.