LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A Lake County man was arrested after shooting a child’s basketball last week, according to the sheriff’s office.
In an affidavit, deputies said they received a phone call on Jan. 31 from someone saying that his child was in the man’s home and hiding in a back room.
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Upon arrival, they met with the man — identified as Dale Barnes, 64 — who explained that two children had been passing a basketball back-and-forth in front of his home earlier that afternoon, the affidavit shows.
The children kept hitting his fence with the ball from the edge of his driveway, so he walked out to confront them, pulling out a handgun and shooting the ball, deputies said.
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The children told deputies that Barnes had threatened “they were going to be next,” so they fled the scene, the affidavit reads.
However, they came around and entered through the back door of Barnes’ home, heading up to the bedroom of another child in the home, deputies stated.
While deputies didn’t specify their identity, one of the children said that someone then broke Barnes’ computer “due to not liking Dale threatening (redacted),” according to the affidavit.
The children reported that after finding the broken computer, Barnes then “began yelling for the children to come to the living room,” investigators said.
Believing that Barnes was still armed, the children hid inside Barnes’ bathroom until law enforcement arrived, the affidavit says.
Barnes was taken into custody and faces two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of child abuse. He was released the next day.
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