Man Killed In Dog Park Faced Anti-Gay Threats From Gunman, Loved Ones Say

Family and friends of a Florida man who was fatally shot at a dog park on Feb. 2 saythe gunman had made homophobic threats toward him for years.

The day before he was killed, 52-year-old John Walter Lay sent a video to his friends describing a man who was making threats to his life,the Tampa Bay Times reported.

In the video, which was obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, Lay said the person had approached him that morning and screamed, “You’re gonna die!”

“So this morning while I’m walking — and we’re the only two here — he comes up to me and screams at me, ‘You’re going to die, you’re going to die,’ and I asked him to just leave me alone, and so far he has,” Lay said in the video.

Lay’s family and friends say he was talking about Gerald Declan Radford, 65, who told law enforcement he killed Lay in self-defense.

“I was attacked. I defended myself. End of story,” Radford told the Tampa Bay Times.

Radford was not arrested. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office told HuffPost in an email on Wednesday that there are currently no criminal charges against him and that the investigation would be turned over to the state attorney’s office when it’s concluded by the sheriff’s office.

A spokesperson for the local state attorney’s office told HuffPost on Thursday that it has not yet received a report on the investigation.

Lay’s loved ones say they do not believe Radford was acting in self-defense. Albert Darlington, Lay’s friend and landlord, told the Tampa Bay Times that the victim had faced homophobic threats from Radford, who goes by “Dec,” for more than a year.

“For over a year, Dec has done nothing but harass Walt. He screams and hollers and calls him a f****t every time he gets to the dog park,” Darlington told the newspaper.