DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A Florida man was arrested after he pointed his gun at a woman’s head and threatened to kill her when her friend used his driveway to back up his vehicle, authorities said Tuesday.
Security camera footage on May 27 shows Terry Vetsch, 60, confronting a man in a white Ford Escape after the driver backed up his vehicle onto Vetsch’s driveway in Palm Coast, Florida, a coastal city about 82 miles northeast of Orlando. Vetsch was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said Vetsch is later seen in the video pointing his gun at a woman, who was the man’s friend. After viewing the footage, police arrested Vetsch who was released May 28 from the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on a $50,000 bond.
Vetsch was ordered not to have any contact with the woman or the man and to surrender his firearms and ammunition within 24 hours of his release from jail.
The incident is the latest in a spate of wrong-place shootings across the United States, which in some cases have resulted in deaths or injuries.
‘WE SHOULDN’T BE SHOCKED’:Wrong-place shootings have plagued US communities for decades
Florida man threatens woman with gun
The sheriff’s office said the man had briefly backed his vehicle onto Vetsch’s driveway and the man told police he was repositioning his vehicle to go onto a neighboring driveway.
Vetsch, who was watching the man use his driveway on his security system, then grabbed his handgun and went outside, according to the sheriff’s office.
The video shows Vetsch strike the man’s backseat window, according to the sheriff’s office. The driver’s friend, a woman who was standing nearby, approached Vetsch in the middle of the street and an argument ensued.
Vetsch then pulled out his gun and pointed it directly at the woman’s head, continuing to argue with her, according to the sheriff’s office. He told police that he pulled his gun out because the woman was waving her hands in his face and yelling at him, the charging affidavit said. Vetsch said he told her to stay off his property.
Vetsch also told police that he pulled the hammer back on the firearm when he pointed it at the woman’s head, the affidavit said, adding later that Vetsch initially thought his neighbor was using his driveway and said he has had many incidents with them.
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Wrong-place shootings across U.S.
A USA TODAY analysis showed that deadly overreactions in “wrong place” events have occurred for decades across the United States.
In early May, a 58-year-old Louisiana man was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and battery after authorities said he shot a 14-year-old girl in the back of the head while she and other children played hide-and-seek on his property.
In April, a 20-year-old woman was fatally shot by a 65-year-old man in rural New York, after she and her friends mistakenly pulled into his driveway while looking for another house. The man was charged with second-degree murder.
Days before that incident, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, was shot and wounded in Kansas City, Missouri, after going to the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers. Andrew Lester, 84, pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
“We currently live in a country that has normalized gun violence through any fears, through culture and laws that allow it,” Josh Horwitz, co-director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, previously told USA TODAY. “And what we’re now seeing is a horrific result of those efforts.”
Contributing: N’dea Yancey-Bragg, Natalie Neysa Alund, Jeanine Santucci, and Terry Collins, USA TODAY
USA TODAY NETWORK
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