CLEARWATER, Fla — "Are you really going to kill me in front of my daughter?" Jeremy Lee asked.
Following a heated exchange, 46-year-old Lee and his daughter, Carrie, are reaching out to law enforcement for something to be done about a Clearwater homeowner who brought an assault rifle out during an argument while the two were doing yard work.
Lee was mowing a woman's lawn on Boylan Avenue near Lakeview Road last Thursday when a neighbor approached him yelling, he told 10 Tampa Bay. He said it was over a parking spot.
"This is my property!" exclaimed David Berry, the 44-year-old neighbor. "You're not allowed to park in my driveway."
Lee said this was probably his third or fourth time doing yard work at the woman's house and he parked in the same place he had before. He said he realized Berry was yelling his way while he was using the weed eater, he turned it off and apologized for parking in his driveway.
At that point, Lee moved his trailer forward, hoping it would de-escalate the situation, but that's when Berry got a rifle out of his truck and continued to yell at Lee.
His daughter caught the exchange on camera.
"I really kind of didn't take him seriously until he pulled it out. I mean for what?" Lee said. "I’m way over here, you’re over there, what are you getting a gun for?"
Carrie, Lee's daughter, said she felt like if Berry would've shot at her father, she would have been caught in the crossfire, as well.
"I knew I couldn’t make a sudden movement or anything so I just pulled out my phone and started recording," she said.
"This is my property," Berry can be heard saying in the video. "I would've shot you dead and you would've went to jail."
The father and daughter called 911 soon after the argument ended. Clearwater police officers responded but Berry did not face any charges. Police Chief Dan Slaughter said the dispute never should've escalated that far.
“We are actively investigating this incident and will be presenting the case to the Office of the State Attorney,” Slaughter wrote in a statement. “The bottom line is a dispute over parking should never have escalated to something like this. If you have a problem with someone partially blocking the driveway, you call the police. You don’t grab a gun like some vigilante.”
Now, the Clearwater Police Department is asking the Pinellas and Pasco State Attorney's Office to review the incident for charges to be filed against Berry.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the homeowner who said he did not have time to give a statement on the dispute recorded on camera.
Lee said he just wants something to be done. Following the dispute, he said Berry carried on while he continued to finish up the yard work.
Clearwater Police Department is asking anyone else who witnessed the exchange to come forward and call 727-562-4242.