Jury convicts man who shot groundskeeper for blowing leaves onto property
A Washington, D.C., jury found a man guilty of aggravated assault and gun charges when he shot a groundskeeper in 2020 for blowing leaves and debris onto his yard, the Justice Department said.
The groundskeeper survived with a minor gunshot wound.
A D.C. Superior Court jury found Lawrence Murphy, 52, guilty of the shooting that stemmed from a dispute with the groundskeeper over where leaves should be blown, the Justice Department said Monday. Murphy became upset with the man, described by federal prosecutors as "an entrepreneur with a groundskeeping business," because he thought leaves were being pushed toward his home and threatened to kill the worker if he continued.
According to D.C. court records, the victim told police he was clearing an alley of yard debris on March 31, 2020, when Murphy demanded that the man keep leaves away "from the front of my house." The man told Murphy not to worry as the wind would take care of any leaves that blew on to his property.
Murphy pulled out a dark-color revolver and fired a shot toward the landscaper, hitting the man's wrist, according to court records. A witness told police she heard a loud pop and later saw the victim holding his forearm.
"The complainant advised that after this, the suspect continued to berate him regarding the leaf debris before the suspect ultimately turned around and went back in the house," according to charging documents, describing the landscaper as the complainant.
Several witnesses and the victim shared information with police that led them to arrest Murphy. Metropolitan Police Department officers arrested Murphy the night of the shooting.
The victim was transported to a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries to his wrist, according to police.
The jury found Murphy guilty of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, felony possession, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of an unregistered firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition. According to Superior Court records, Murphy pleaded guilty to felony assault with a dangerous weapon in 2002. Judge Jennifer Di Toro scheduled Murphy's sentencing for June 9.
Murphy's attorney Alvin Thomas Jr. declined to comment on the case.
In a different D.C. case involving a landscaper, an unknown person shot and killed Jason Ford, 45, in June 2022 during a road rage incident, the Metropolitan Police Department told NBC Washington. Ford's widow told the television station he was working in a neighborhood as a landscaper when a person approached Ford about grass clippings on a car, to which Ford apologized. That same person saw Ford at a stoplight in a landscaping company's truck and fatally shot him in the chest.
In similar but not related cases across the country, people have been wounded or killed when tensions flared in arguments. A Miami-Dade bus driver was arrested in March after police said they shot two passengers following a dispute. The passengers in the shooting died at a local hospital. In Georgia, three teens face murder charges after police said they killed a bus driver in January during an argument over the teens refusing to pay the $2.50 fare.
Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at knurse@USATODAY.com. Follow her on X @KrystalRNurse, and on BlueSky @krystalrnuse.bsky.social.