Authorities took away a white man's firearms after a viral video caught him harassing Black landscapers while armed with a rifle, according to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
David H. Berry, 44, was caught on camera shouting at Jeremy Lee and his daughter, Carrie, for parking close to his driveway while cutting grass in a Clearwater neighborhood. At one point in his video, he continues yelling at the Black family while holding an AR-9 rifle in hand.
“This is my property, I would’ve shot you dead, and you would've went to jail," Berry is heard telling Lee, who's off-camera.
The Clearwater Police Department and Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) seized Berry's guns on July 27. Officials filed a risk protection order against Berry following an incident between the 44-year-old and a PCSO deputy trying to serve a subpoena over the dispute in the video, according to CPD Chief Daniel Slaughter.
This gave authorities the grounds to seize all firearms from Berry, who's identified as a threat to public safety in the order.
"I don't believe that this gentleman is acting rationally," Slaughter told reporters. "And I believe that we're safer today than we were a week ago."
As for potential charges against Berry, the police chief says the case is still being reviewed by the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney.
"I would like it to be where he cannot own any guns at all in life," Lakwana Jones, Carrie's mother, told Creative Loafing. "He is not a guy who should be allowed to own guns, just by looking at his criminal record and the actions he has displayed with a gun in hand. He is a threat to society."
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