The crack of gunfire interrupted a peaceable night for retirees residing close to Kings Level Golf Course on Sunday when a 74-year-old man shot his 64-year-old neighbor within the ankle and beat him with a membership for strolling his canine on the golf course.
King's Level is a retirement group for residents aged 55 and above in Delray Seashore, Florida. A actual property itemizing for the group boasts 7,200 condominium models and three clubhouses with a variety of facilities, together with a health heart, a efficiency theater, two outside swimming pools, two tennis courts, 28 shuffleboard courts and the 18-hole golf course that turned a bloody scene on Sunday.
The golfer, Robert Levine, was enraged by dog-walker Herbert Merritt, based on an arrest report from the Palm Seashore County Sheriff's Workplace obtained by WPBF-TV. Merritt advised deputies that Levine rode as much as him in a golf cart and verbally berated him earlier than taking out a semi-automatic handgun.
As Merritt ran away and tried to take cowl, Levine shot about 5 rounds at his neighbor. He chased down the dog-walker and kicked him within the head, then retrieved a membership from his golf cart and beat Merritt whereas holding the gun in his left hand. Shocked retirees who noticed the assault unfold from their balconies described the chain of occasions to sheriff's deputies, WPBF-TV reported.
Responding officers discovered Merritt mendacity on the bottom with a gunshot wound to his left ankle. They apprehended Levine, who nonetheless had the handgun in his pocket. Additionally they discovered shell casings on the bottom and two golf golf equipment that gave the impression to be blood-stained.
Merritt advised the deputies that he had by no means seen the golfer earlier than and "felt that Levine was attempting to kill him," based on the native station.
The dog-walker was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening accidents. Levine was additionally hospitalized for an unrelated medical episode and charged with tried first-degree homicide. In Florida, the crime is punishable with fines as much as $10,000 and a sentence of as much as life in jail.
The state noticed 2,872 gun deaths in 2019, a median of eight folks daily, based on the Instructional Fund to Cease Gun Violence. With 1,013 firearm homicides—35 p.c of the overall gun deaths—Florida had the Nineteenth-highest gun murder fee in the USA that yr. In accordance with researchers at California State College, knowledge has proven that the aged are considerably much less prone to be arrested than youthful folks, however that they're extra prone to be arrested for alcohol and drug-related issues than they're for many different varieties of crimes.
Newsweek reached out to the Palm Seashore County Sheriff's Workplace for remark.
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