A 61-year-old man apparently upset that a school bus was picking up and dropping off two people with disabilities too close to his property has been arrested and accused of deliberately setting his sprinklers to soak the victims.
Antonio Roman was taken into custody on Aug. 17. He was arrested on four counts of stalking and two counts each of battery on a disabled person and battery.
Records show Roman, of Ocala, was released from the county jail at 3:43 a.m. on Aug. 19 after posting a $4,000 bond.
Authorities said in late April, Cpl. Kyle Ferguson of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office went to an Ocala residence, in the 9600 block of Southwest 51st Circle, after receiving a report that Roman was intentionally turning on his sprinkler system to douse the family, which lives next door.
According to a sheriff’s office news release, family members told the corporal that since Aug. 8, 2024, Roman’s sprinklers have been turned on twice a day — whenever two special-needs individuals, ages 22 and 17, were getting on and off the school bus. The corporal was told the man used his surveillance system to determine when the bus arrived.
The corporal was told the victims’ father wore swimming clothes as he shielded the victims. Sometimes the water spread inside the bus, the sheriff’s office was told. Family members estimate the pattern repeated hundreds of times.
Meanwhile, Roman himself has called the sheriff’s office more than 70 times to complain about the bus using his property, according to the news release.
The sheriff’s office conducted surveillance and noted that Roman’s sprinklers were aimed directly at the school bus stop, the sheriff’s office said. The sprinklers came on when the bus arrived, and they would turn off when the bus left.
The sheriff’s office asked Roman about this. “When confronted about using the surveillance cameras to track the arrival time and manually activating the sprinklers, Roman admitted that he did this because he was upset that the bus was ‘on [his] side,’ ” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Specifically, he said part of his driveway is used for the wheelchair ramp that one victim needs to board the bus.
At the conclusion of Ferguson’s investigation, he obtained a warrant for Roman’s arrest.
Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala man arrested, accused of repeatedly aiming sprinklers at special-needs neighbors
Reporting by Austin L. Miller, Ocala Star-Banner / Ocala Star-Banner
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
