On March 21, 2021, police charged two Prince George’s County men with illegally hunting a white-tailed deer.
Officers responded to a wooded area behind a neighborhood development in Woodstock after learning that two men were illegally hunting deer. The men, Zacarias Velasquez-Mejia, 55, of Beltsville, and Jose Angel Martinez, 43, of Laurel, both claimed that they were retrieving a deer that died of natural causes. However, police found a loaded firearm hidden in a trash bag and a deer carcass in the mens’ vehicle. Once confronted with this information, both admitted to knowingly poaching the deer. As a result, the officers seized the firearm.
The officers also charged the men with hunting on a private land without written permission and hunting a white-tailed deer during the closed season. Additional charges included possession of a white-tailed deer during the closed season, failure to obtain a hunting license, possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle, and criminal trespassing.