22-year-old Alec Bloodworth now faces charges for both hunting violations and a violent shooting in Middle Georgia
Just days before authorities say Alec Bloodworth shot his own father in a Kathleen neighborhood, the 22-year-old Perry man had already landed on law enforcement’s radar—this time for a late-night deer poaching incident in nearby Macon County.
According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division, Bloodworth and another man were caught illegally hunting whitetail deer at night, from a public roadway, and from a motor vehicle—a trifecta of violations under state hunting law.
On the night of September 18, Game Warden Wes Freeman responded to a suspicious deer kill in rural Macon County. With help from Cpl. Keith Page and his K-9 partner Kamo, officers located a carcass and two spent .308 shell casings near a roadside. The details quickly pointed toward a case of nighttime road hunting, which remains one of the most serious offenses in Georgia’s wildlife code due to its reckless and unsportsmanlike nature.
“Hunt whitetail deer the way they’re supposed to be hunted,” Freeman told reporters. “Otherwise, you’ll be caught.”
“This kind of behavior gives a black eye to all the hunters who put in the work, follow the rules, and do things the right way,” one Georgia hunter commented on Facebook after seeing DNR’s post about the arrest.
Officers say the deer was likely spotlighted and shot from a Ford F-250 sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m on Sept. 18. One Facebook user stated this occurred off of General John B. Gordon road, but this has not been confirmed by law enforcement yet.
Hunting from a vehicle and public roadway not only violates state law—it also endangers the public and reflects poorly on the ethical hunting community.
Both Bloodworth and his accomplice were charged with hunting deer at night, hunting from a public roadway, and hunting from a motor vehicle. All three charges carry serious penalties, especially when compounded with the use of a firearm in a potentially dangerous setting.
But what no one expected was how fast things would escalate.
Days Later, A Domestic Shooting in Kathleen
On Sunday night, September 22—just four days after the poaching incident—gunfire erupted in the quiet Figston Run subdivision in Kathleen, Georgia. Responding officers with Perry Police found that Alec Bloodworth was allegedly behind the shooting, and the victim was none other than his own father.
Authorities have confirmed that Bloodworth now faces charges of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. The elder Bloodworth’s condition has not been made public, and investigators have not released details about what led to the shooting.
As of now, authorities say there is no confirmed connection between the poaching incident and the domestic dispute. Still, the back-to-back arrests paint a troubling picture of a young man whose actions spiraled from unlawful hunting to alleged violence within his own family.
A Community Shaken
While Bloodworth has not yet entered a plea in either case, the overlapping timeline of the poaching charges and the shooting has sparked conversation across the hunting community—and beyond.
Reactions on Facebook to the Alec Bloodworth poaching case have been swift and divided. Some hunters are calling for harsher penalties, with one user suggesting Georgia adopt restitution fines similar to those out West—“Hit them with a $10,000 restitution fine to replace a trophy whitetail,” they wrote. “Won’t take but a few caught and charged before word gets around and this lawlessness will STOP.”
Others want tougher license suspensions, saying, “Take their hunting rights nationwide for 15 years. Bet they’ll think about it next time.”
But not everyone agrees with the crackdown. One commenter fired back with a more defiant take: “F*** the DNR! Do these people really think our ancestors waited until daytime during a specific time of year to go harvest deer? Absolutely not.”
One thing is clear: Georgia’s DNR officers are continuing to crack down on nighttime road hunting, a problem that’s drawn increased attention in recent years as spotlighting and reckless firearm use put both wildlife and civilians at risk.
Meanwhile, the violent incident in Kathleen serves as a grim reminder that sometimes the biggest threats to a family don’t come from outside the home—but from within it.
