TAMPA, Fla. — For Kim Wolfley, coming to the West Dog Park helps her grieve.
She met her close friend John Lay at the park but it's also where last February, he died.
"With time, it does get better. It's just you still aren't going to ever forget, you know, the way that you lose someone that you love," she said.
Lay recorded himself describing an alleged encounter with his accused shooter on the morning of Feb. 1, 2023.
"We're the only two here, and he comes up to me and screams at me, 'You're gonna die, you're gonna die,'" Lay said in a 27-second video.
The next day, Lay died.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office stated Gerald Declan Radford called them after the fatal shooting.
Radford, who is charged with second-degree murder claims self-defense. Radford stated Lay attacked him first the morning of Feb. 2, according to court documents.
However, Wolfley believes hate killed her friend.
The Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez agrees, stating the actions of Radford "were motivated by hate." The state is seeking an enhancement as a hate crime, meaning Radford could face extra penalty if convicted.
"I don't understand how you could say it's anything but a hate crime when all you want to do is holler and call him a f****** f***** and say you want to hurt him," Lay's friend Albert Darlington said in an interview last March.
Alleged hate crime incidents do get reported in Florida, however, some experts believe the real numbers nationwide are likely higher and may be rare for prosecutors to bring to court.
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The FBI reported its highest number ever recorded in its most recent report since tracking data in the nineties. The latest numbers in Florida show 161 bias-motivated incidents in 2022. The majority dealt with race or ethnicity, followed by religion, then sexual orientation.
Participation in the data collection of hate crime incidents is voluntary for state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies; however, it is mandatory for federal law enforcement.
"You have this mandate by the FBI but you have no mandate that local law enforcement agencies give them the data," said Dr. Brendan Lantz, an associate professor and director of Florida State University's Hate Crime Research and Policy Institute.
Lantz said several barriers may also hinder the ability to arrest and later convict.
Marginalized communities may be more skeptical of authorities and feel apprehensive to report, Lantz said. In addition, Lantz stated there's still insufficient training to respond to reported hate crimes including the identification of bias motivation or collecting needed evidence.
Prosecutors may also tend to go for the more underlying offenses versus an actual hate crime charge to avoid complications, he said.
Lantz said when it comes to accountability, it's not just about punishing people when such crimes are reported, but recognizing where they come from.
"It's about recognizing that hate crimes tend to be rooted within all kinds of historically embedded and institutionalized processes of systemic racism, of heteronormativity, of all of these kinds of different processes that tend to get institutionalized within our systems," he said.
In the Florida attorney general's most recent hate crime report, at least 22 offenses were counted in the Tampa Bay area in 2022.
At least one in Polk County, four in Sarasota County, five in Hillsborough County, and twelve in Pinellas County.
Lantz said there's evidence suggesting that the trends in hate crimes are increasing, however, other crimes are going down.
"What that means is hate crimes are probably going up a lot more than we're measuring, right? Which is concerning," he said.
Lantz said in this Tampa case, the enhancement could signal there's a high degree of confidence that it was a bias-motivated act through information that is overt evidence like the use of slurs or exhibition of prejudicial attitudes.
Before his arrest in a text, Radford told 10 Tampa Bay, "evidence will show that I acted in self-defense end of story."
Darlington said Radford also sent him an image of his face the day of the shooting, which appears to have cuts. The accompanying text message stated, "Walt attacked me at the park and I had to defend myself."
Attorneys for Radford have argued in court that the state is building its case on the media and politics, and ignoring evidence. The defense is objecting to any evidence of a hate crime.
They add the case is a self-defense case, adding during previous hearings that Radford has no criminal history and would be willing to surrender any travel documents.
In addition, the defense argues that there is no evidence Radford is a danger to the LGBTQ community and that the only change in circumstance is that the media started to pay attention.
But for Wolfley, the case is clear cut, she believes that Lay's death was motivated by hate.
Wolfley still helps look after Lay's dog Fala and for both of them, there will always be great memories and sadness found in the dog park.
"I don't want his legacy to be that he got shot in the dog park," she said. "He loved our little crew and family that we made here."
