Baytown man angered over armed stranger's confrontation with son
BAYTOWN, Texas (KTRK) -- A Baytown father is furious after an armed neighbor confronted his son on his own property.
Antonio Rodriguez captured the incident on his home surveillance cameras Saturday night. Footage shows a man carrying a long gun on his back while walking his dog. In the middle of all this was the man's confrontation with a teen.
Rodriguez said his son was returning from a friend's house when the neighbor questioned him.
"When he came back, a man with an AR-15 and a handgun on his hip, with a German Shepard on the sidewalk, told him, 'Hey, what are you doing? Put your hands up,'" Rodriguez said.
The video shows the teen approach the man with his hands in the air. After a minute conversation, the man with the long gun and dog left.
"I don't want to hear an instance where my son got shot because a man thought he was reaching for something or had his hand in his pocket, and he was grabbing his phone," Rodriguez said. "I don't want to be that parent to deal with that. I don't. Let the police deal with it."
A Harris County sheriff's deputy responded to the neighborhood the following day and watched the video. Deputies said since the man never reached for the gun and wasn't holding it in a threatening or dangerous manner, he did nothing wrong.
In Texas, you are allowed to carry a shotgun or long gun without a permit, as long as it isn't held in a threatening or dangerous manner. Deputies did notice the neighbor stepped on the man's property when he was talking to the teen.
Deputies plan to speak to the man and give him a verbal warning about trespassing. Rodriguez said he has no issue with the man walking with the weapons. He just wishes next time he would handle it differently.
"You want to observe and report, that's fine," Rodriguez said. "Sit there and call the police, but to take matters into your own hands, on private property, not knowing if the kid lives here or not, is scary to me."
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