‘Bock, bock, bock you next’: Gunman heads to prison for shooting at man who told him to stop harassing a flock of peacocks

A man in Oregon has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for trying to kill a man who asked him to stop harassing peacocks.

The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office announced that Dylan Levi Rhoads has been sentenced to 90 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Marshall handed down the sentencing on May 8.

In addition to pleading guilty, Rhoads resolved eight other cases against him while he was in court.

Deputy District Attorney Eric Palmer pointed to Rhoads’ stack of charges and determined that the legal system had failed to appropriately punish him.

“This defendant had a clear pattern of escalating, dangerous, criminal behavior,” Palmer said. “And yet he was repeatedly released after being arrested for his earlier crimes. I believe the system failed here – failed both the victims and the defendant.”

The incident that landed him in prison occurred on September 29, 2023. A man preparing to drive to work stepped outside of his home and noticed Rhoads and another individual harassing peacocks on the street. He decided to intervene and request that they leave the birds alone.

The birds are well known in the community and are treated as a collective group of pets by the locals.

“Neighborhood lore is some years ago someone had some peacocks, said they kept hassling him, he said ‘fine’ and let them all loose,” a neighbor told local broadcaster KGW. “No one actually takes care of them, we all sort of look after them a bit.”

That shared sense of responsibility for the birds’ well-being is likely what motivated the victim to approach Rhoads and the other individual.

The DA's office said that Rhoads and the other individual had a "violent" response after the victim asked them to stop giving the birds grief.

"Bock, bock, bock, you next," the men told the victim, according to the DA's office.

The victim returned to his home and let Rhoads and the other man drive off. He then got into his own car to drive to work, but was ambushed and shot at by Rhoads at a nearby intersection. A few of the bullets grazed the victim, and a recently-installed heavy duty driver's seat stopped another from causing him significant injury.

Police managed to track down Rhoads using footage captured from neighbors' Ring cameras.