Texts Reveal Woman's Plan to Acquire Firearms Over Sarasota's Decision to Keep Park Basketball Hoop

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SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Documents revealing threats directed at youngsters in Sarasota’s Mary Dean Park have been acquired by 8 On Your Side.

The released records include text exchanges between a park neighbor and her acquaintance. These conversations were forwarded to municipal workers, prompting them to remove the park’s basketball hoop as a safety precaution. Following public outcry, the hoop was reinstated last Thursday.

In a related incident, two individuals were apprehended for disabling ATMs and targeting bank patrons in a Clearwater operation.

Authorities in Sarasota have initiated an investigation into the threat.

Across several days, the woman involved in the texts, whose identity 8 On Your Side is withholding, hinted at potential violence.

One alarming message read, “Someone or many are probably gonna die. And I’m not being dramatic. I can’t control this.”

On October 16, she texted a friend, ”Once you’ve been terrorized for years with noise torture… It’s hard to value anyone’s life because obviously no one values ours… If the city and parks want to ignore pleas for help of 5 years they can live with the consequences. I’m getting a gun and a gun license and if anyone comes on our property to ‘fetch a basketball’ then they can expect me to protect myself against trespassing.”

Attorney Bryant Camareno explained whether this was a threat.

“Legally, I don’t think it is. I don’t think it’s a good practice for her to be sending that message because it’s conditional. What she’s saying is if this happens again, I’m going to get a gun, OK? And if it happens again, I may have to use the gun. So I think that that’s it’s too conditional, in my opinion, to be a direct threat, to be a crime,” Camareno said.

The attorney said though the comments were troubling, the woman didn’t directly say them to anyone or post it online.

The woman described noises from the hoop not being “conducive to relaxing.” She went on to say, “We’re getting guns and anyone who trespasses might have consequences from their inability to remove an 8 foot hoop and put it in a bigger park a few blocks away.”

Her messages claim kids have trespassed, damaged her property, and have harassed her for 11 years. She also alleges the kids shot and killed her cats. 8 On Your Side reached out to her for comment but have not heard a response.

Sarasota police said the investigation is ongoing.

“I think I would say this was a warning shot to her,” Camareno said. “The woman who sent that message, be careful what you say because they’re going to keep up with you. So I don’t know if there’s any further proactive investigation they could do, but I think they’re going to monitor this and see what happens after that.”