On July 7, a Clearwater man with a criminal history pulled an AR-15 style assault rifle on a Black father and his daughter who were landscaping a lawn across the street from him, in a video that has gone viral on social media.
Jeremy Lee, the landscaper, shared the video footage in a post on Facebook. In the video, David H. Berry of Fat Finger Construction is seen holding the rifle and yelling at Jeremy, while his daughter Carrie Lee films the interaction.
'This is My Property'
"This is my property, you're not allowed to block my driveway, don't be a prick!" Berry yells at Jeremy.
"I told you I'll move," Jeremy responds, seemingly in an attempt to deescalate the situation.
"You think I'm playing, punk ass, your daughter better take record of how stupid her father is!" Berry said, referencing Carrie recording the interaction and pointing at the 22-year-old while holding the gun. "Keep recording, if it goes online, your ass will be sued too!"
"You pulling a gun on a guy on city property?" asked Jeremy, who was standing in the street with Carrie.
"This is my property and I'll do what I want, do not block somebody's driveway!" Berry shouts.
Towards the end of the clip, Berry pulls out his phone and seemingly starts recording them in return, doing the same thing he said he would sue them for.
Carrie Claim They Weren't Blocking Berry's Driveway
In the video, Lee's landscaping trailer does not seem to be blocking the driveway. But when the gate for the trailer was down temporarily to load out the lawnmower, it went near Berry's driveway on the street in front of it causing him to become enraged and start cussing at the landscapers, Carrie told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
Cops Said Nothing Could Be Done
In the wake of the incident, Jeremy called the Clearwater Police Department. When officers arrived on scene, Berry, who owns a local construction company called Fat Finger Construction, had already put his gun away and video shows the cops standing across the street, not taking action.
Even though the police were shown the video and told what happened, Carrie said they were told there was nothing that could be done.
In a statement to Creative Loafing, the department's communications manager said:
"CPD continues to actively investigate this as a potential case of aggravated assault with a firearm," CPD wrote in an email. "On scene, our officers were given conflicting stories from those involved. David Berry told officers he retrieved his gun after being threatened by Jeremy Lee. Jeremy Lee said David Berry pointed the weapon at him as he threatened him. Jeremy's daughter said she captured the entire incident on video; the video did not show the weapon being pointed at anyone. Often, it takes time to sort through these cases to determine if charges are warranted. We are still in the process of doing that."
The outlet also reached out to Berry, who declined to comment."There will be no comment about this. You should check with the Clearwater Police about this," he wrote in an email response.
