A 41-year-old Thorntown farmer accused of shooting at an occupied crop duster flying over his property has been arrested and charged with attempted murder, more than a year after the bullet tore through the aircraft's belly and struck flight-control components just beneath the pilot's seat. Kedrick Miller was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Boone County Jail, where he is now being held without bond pending court proceedings.
The shooting happened on July 18, 2025, near the rural intersection of State Road 75 and County Road 900 West outside Dover in western Boone County, according to the Boone County Sheriff's Office. The pilot told investigators he heard a pop around 6:30 p.m. that filled the cockpit with the smell of gas and knocked out the plane's air conditioning before he managed an emergency landing. Court documents reported by WKRC later revealed the bullet entered directly beneath the pilot's seat, damaging rudder flight-control components and air-conditioning lines — a detail that underscores how close the incident came to a catastrophic outcome. No one was physically injured.
A Yearlong Investigation Involving the FBI and FAA
The Boone County Sheriff's Office confirmed that both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Aviation Administration were brought in immediately to assist local deputies with the probe, a level of federal involvement that transformed what began as a rural property dispute into a sprawling, multi-agency felony case. Investigators conducted what the sheriff's office described as a thorough investigation before presenting their findings to the Boone County Prosecutor's Office roughly a year later.
During a search of Miller's property, authorities reportedly found firearms, ammunition, and magazines. A witness also told police that Miller had someone melt down a gun for him, according to the seed reporting — a claim that remains part of the case file but has not been independently resolved. Sheriff Tony Harris said intentionally discharging a firearm at an occupied aircraft is dangerous, adding that decisions made in the heat of the moment can have serious and lasting consequences.
Goats, Chemicals and a Self-Declared 'No-Fly Zone'
Miller has run Miller Boer Goats in Thorntown for more than two decades, building what industry profiles from VitaFerm describe as one of the largest show-goat breeding operations in the country, with nearly 1,200 breeding does. He reportedly believed the crop dusters flying near his farm were scaring his goats and had, according to the seed reporting, caused injuries and even lost pregnancies among his livestock.
Court records reported by FOX59 show that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Miller called the company that had contracted the crop duster and declared his farm a no-fly zone, telling a representative that spraying chemicals near his property could cause his goats to abort their offspring. An aerial spraying representative said Miller had already been issued a drift notice — a protection meant to shield downwind property from spraying activity — and Miller allegedly told the representative that they were lucky he was not a better shot. The pilot, for his part, said his sprayers had been shut off before he flew over Miller's property, and he described Miller as an irate farmer upset about spraying activities.
Ex-Wife Described a Pattern of 'Explosive' Anger
Court affidavits cited by WTHR indicate Miller's ex-wife told detectives he had an explosive temper toward aerial sprayers, recounting a 2022 incident in which he allegedly grabbed a rifle and pointed it at a crop duster before she intervened. That history, if accurate, would mark the July 2025 shooting as an escalation of a documented pattern rather than an isolated outburst.
Miller faces charges of attempted murder, attempted disruption of the operation of an aircraft, criminal recklessness, and intimidation. Under Indiana Code § 35-50-2-4, a Level 1 felony conviction for attempted murder carries a mandatory prison sentence between 20 and 40 years and fines up to $10,000, according to Coots, Henke & Wheeler, P.C., with state law barring judges from suspending any sentence below the 20-year floor. Separately, federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 32 makes intentionally discharging a firearm at or damaging a civil aircraft in flight punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, per the U.S. Department of Justice. It remains an open question whether federal charges will be added to the state case.
A Familiar Conflict in Agricultural Skies
The case echoes a 2015 federal prosecution in Texas, where a landowner admitted to firing multiple rifle rounds into a crop duster flying near his ranch amid an ongoing spraying dispute, nearly severing the pilot's rudder cable in an attack that also carried a 20-year maximum sentence. The National Agricultural Aviation Association, which represents pilots applying aerial treatments across roughly 28% of U.S. cropland, maintains a formal shooting-response checklist instructing pilots on emergency landing and evidence-preservation steps if they are targeted by gunfire — a sign of how often this friction between rural landowners and agricultural pilots turns dangerous.
Sheriff Harris said agricultural pilots provide an important service to the farming community and should be able to do their work without being placed in danger. Investigators noted that a forced-down aircraft or stray bullets could have struck people on the ground, calling the alleged actions a significant risk to both the pilot and bystanders below.
