The long arm of the law caught up with a southeast Louisiana duck hunting guide who harassed three young duck hunters in a senseless act of anger the day after Christmas 2021.

A judge sentenced Brendan Nolan of Buras on April 12 to pay a $1,075 fine, a $200 civil penalty to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and restitution for the decoys he shot with a handgun on public property near Venice. Nolan, 32, entered a guilty plea to harassing duck hunters and shooting their decoys, a story reported Jan. 9 in Overtime Outdoors.

According to an LDWF spokesman, Nolan was trying to make the other duck hunters leave the public area so he could hunt there. His actions were recorded in a video taken by one of the duck hunters.

After the incident was reported to law enforcement officials, Nolan was charged on Dec. 26, 2021. They were shown the video of the suspect driving his boat at high speed into a decoy spread in front of the duck blind, verbally harassing the waterfowlers, pulling a loaded pistol and shooting the duck decoys.

“It is public land, so it is first-come, first-serve and the duck hunters he harassed were already set up in that area,” LDWF Enforcement Division spokesman Adam Einck said in a prepared statement released April 19.

Nolan said earlier this month he was guilty to the charges of illegal discharge of a firearm, criminal damage to property and harassment of persons lawfully hunting, Einck said.

Also, Nolan was ordered to take anger management classes and placed on one-year active probation and one-year inactive probation. The Plaquemines Parish Government also barred him from acting as a hunting guide on land owned or administered by the parish for one year.

According to social media posts, Nolan apparently built the permanent duck blind. The teens apparently scouted the area and got there first.

The three duck hunters, reportedly two age 18 and one age 19, watched in disbelief as the events unfolded that day. The video shows the surface drive boat motoring into the decoys approximately 15-20 yards from their duck blind.

Nolan releases the tiller handle with the mud motor still running, then walks to the front of the boat as it glides into the spread.

One of the teens is heard saying, incredulously, “Are you serious right now?”

Nolan returns to grab the tiller handle and gooses the mud motor to cut a tight donut in the decoys. He stands up again as the boat idles to complete the circle, grabs a pistol, assumes a target shooter’s stance with his back to the duck blind and fires eight shots into the decoys.

The man returns to drive the boat away with the pistol in his right hand but before he does he turns and fires one last bullet at a decoy between the boat and the duck blind. Then he speeds away. Elapsed time: 0:36 seconds.

There was quite an uproar as the duck hunting community reacted to the report from Venice. Many people were disgusted and appalled. Some said it was a recipe for tragedy as it could have turned deadly.

One of those bullets could have hit a duck hunter. One or more of the duck hunters could have returned fire fearing imminent danger.

There’s no room for that in our pursuit of outdoors sports. Ever.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.