A 43-year-old Fort Pierce-area man is being held without bail after St. Lucie County deputies say he opened fire in his backyard when he thought he heard someone messing with his fence, only to have investigators find no spent shell casings anywhere on the property. Jernord R. Kirkland was arrested on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and discharging a firearm in public following the incident on the 2700 block of Langston Drive.
According to an arrest report obtained by KDNL, Kirkland told deputies he was sitting on his living room couch when he heard what he thought was tapping on his bedroom window. He grabbed a knife and went out to inspect his backyard, according to the report cited by Treasure Coast Newspapers, and said he believed someone was moving around near his chain-link fence before he went back inside for firearms.
Deputies responded to the Langston Drive address after receiving three separate 911 calls reporting shooting activity in the area on August 25. The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office says shots were fired from Kirkland's residence, and he is accused of firing multiple rounds into his own backyard.
Guns Found Inside, Not a Single Casing Outside
What investigators didn't find is where this case gets complicated. Despite the volume of gunfire reported by neighbors, deputies searched the front and back yards and turned up no spent shell casings, per the same arrest report. Instead, they located a revolver resting on top of a laundry basket inside the home, with two more firearms tucked inside the basket itself — all three of which deputies ultimately recovered from Kirkland.
That gap between what callers reported hearing and what officers actually recovered at the scene is, as the same account notes, the central tension of the case. Investigators have not said whether forensic testing will attempt to tie the recovered handguns to any fired rounds or other physical evidence, and it remains an open question whether Kirkland will pursue a self-defense argument despite being legally barred from possessing firearms at all.
Why Kirkland Isn't Allowed to Have a Gun
Kirkland is a convicted felon, which under Florida law means he is prohibited from having firearms unless his civil and firearm rights have been formally restored through the state's executive clemency process, according to Goldman Wetzel. Those rights are not restored automatically just because someone completes a prison sentence.
Under Florida Statute § 790.23, possessing or controlling a firearm or ammunition as a convicted felon is a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, per the Jeff T. Gorman Law Offices. If prosecutors can establish that Kirkland had actual physical possession of a firearm during the incident, Florida's 10-20-Life sentencing framework would impose a mandatory minimum of three years in state prison upon conviction.
The separate charge of discharging a firearm in public falls under Florida Statute § 790.15, a first-degree misdemeanor that carries up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, according to Online Sunshine. That statute does carve out narrow exceptions for lawful self-defense, though Kirkland's underlying prohibition on possessing a weapon at all complicates any such claim.
Held Without Bail in Unincorporated St. Lucie County
The Langston Drive residence sits in an unincorporated stretch of St. Lucie County just north of the Fort Pierce city limits, meaning the sheriff's office rather than city police handles patrol coverage there. Jail records show Kirkland was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail on August 26, the day after his late-night arrest, and he remained held without bail as of that booking, with no bond set.
The arrest adds to a string of recent St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office firearm cases involving convicted felons in the Fort Pierce area, including a nightclub shooting case Hoodline covered earlier this month. Sheriff Richard R. Del Toro Jr. told the Board of County Commissioners in July that property crime across the county fell 13.7% in 2026, reaching a 10-year low that he attributed to increased proactive patrols and foot enforcement, though that trend applies to property crime broadly rather than to firearm cases specifically.
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