December 10, 2025
PRESS RELEASE
State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden announced that on December 10, 2025, 23-year-old Joseph Henry Broxson was found guilty by a jury of Aggravated Animal Abuse and Discharging a Firearm on Residential Property. The trial was presided over by the Honorable Amy Brodersen.
On December 30, 2024, Broxson was arrested for the December 29th shooting of his neighbors’ 1-year-old dog named Tank. In the early morning hours of December 29, 2024, Tank and another dog got out of their fenced yard and walked into Broxson’s backyard. Broxson told Escambia County Sheriff deputies that the dogs were “snooping around” in his backyard and said they barked and growled. Broxson said that he was so afraid of the dogs that he went inside his home to arm himself with his firearm. He then went back outside to the front yard and discovered that the dogs were walking in the street, several houses away. Broxson said he waited in his front yard for the dogs to walk past his house again and shot at them, striking Tank multiple times. Tank made a full recovery.
Sentencing is scheduled for January 21, 2026, at 8:30. Broxson faces up to 5 years in state prison.
Assistant State Attorney Erin Ambrose prosecuted the case at trial. For further information, please contact the State Attorney’s Office at 850-595-4200.
