A fight over who gets to drink the "good beer" led to the arrest of a former Ku Klux Klan leader and his son in rural east Osceola County, the Sheriff's Office said.
Troy Hixon, 45, his girlfriend, another woman and his father, George Hixon, 73, were drinking Wednesday night when Troy Hixon threw his girlfriend down and began shooting into the ground near her, a sheriff's report states.
George Hixon served time in federal prison in the late 1980s for possessing an unregistered machine gun. When drug agents searched his home at the time, they found evidence that he was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Osceola County, they said at the time.
Troy Hixon's girlfriend, whose name was not released, told deputies that an argument began after she complained that she was forced to drink cheap beer while the men drank "good beer" Budweiser, according to the report. She also said someone poured beer on her while she was on the ground, and she heard a can crumple.
The girlfriend then changed her story, claiming nothing had happened. She told deputies she was afraid that if her boyfriend went to jail, he would be angry at her and they might fall further behind on the rent and be evicted. Father and son live on adjoining pieces of property in rural St. Cloud Manor, southeast of St. Cloud. The Osceola County Property Appraiser's Office lists the 7-acre tract as vacant other than sheds and a fence, but the men are thought to live in mobile homes, the Sheriff's Office said.
Troy Hixon told a deputy that he "did the 'redneck' thing" and shot holes in a trash can full of water so it could drain, the deputy wrote. He told another deputy that he shot two rounds into the can to prove the gun worked. A man wanted to buy it but changed his mind because of the $500 price, Hixon told deputies.
"Troy was extremely angry and yelling and screaming," an investigator wrote.
While deputies were trying to arrest Hixon, his father began threatening to hurt them, they said. George Hixon tried to go inside his home to get a gun and was arrested on a charge of making threats toward public officials, the report states. Troy Hixon was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, displaying a firearm during a felony and battery. Both were held at the Osceola County Jail.
George Hixon was sentenced in 1988 to six months in federal prison for possessing an unregistered machine gun. He had been charged with five weapons violations, including possessing a silencer.
When agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms searched his home in June 1987 looking for drugs none were found they discovered documents identifying Hixon as "exalted cyclops," or leader of the Osceola branch of United Klans of America, they said at the time. They also found 37 weapons, including four unregistered machine guns. Among them were a Chinese AK-47 and an American military M-16.
A federal judge gave Hixon a lenient sentence after a minister, a former City Council member, businessmen and an ex-Florida Supreme Court justice testified and wrote letters on his behalf, Orlando Sentinel reports show. He was released from prison in March 1989.
George Hixon is a contractor and carpenter who formerly owned a trucking and auto-salvage company. He also once ran an investment company out of his home. In 2008, he incorporated a nonprofit called Decision for Christ that bought and shipped goods to missionaries, state documents show. The charity was dissolved in September.
Troy Hixon was formerly affiliated with a tile business.
