What started as a disagreement over a urinating dog got heated recently when a Tampa, Florida, man produced a metal rod and attacked a Black neighbor who had sprayed him and his pet with her gardening hose.
Video of the altercation has been widely circulated online and has spawned a Change.org petition seeking prosecution of the man, identified as Terence K. Wolfe, for his June 2 attack on Benita McConico, 55.
It shows the two in an animated conversation that supporters of McConico say started when she challenged Wolfe over his dog allegedly urinating on her lawn. Wolfe responds by brandishing the rod, striking Mcconico repeatedly on her arms as he approaches her in an aggressive manner.
Wolfe said he acted in self-defense, claiming McConico assaulted him in a call to 911.
“She began going after my dog, and she continued spraying her hose on me,” Wolfe told the 911 operator.
The two had argued before. According to the police report of the incident, McConico said the dog had frequently urinated on her lawn and she asked Wolfe to stop walking in front of her home. He refused. She acknowledged spraying at Wolfe’s feet to get him to prevent his dog from peeing on her grass again.
Wolfe told police McConico sprayed her hose directly at him and he waved his rod in self-defense. Any contact with Mcconico’s body was incidental, he said.
McConico’s sustained bruises on her left arm, upper left thigh and back during the altercation, police confirmed.
“The video of the attack speaks for itself,” said McConico’s attorney, Shaunette Stokes. “The fact that no charges have been brought against Mr. Wolfe is a glaring miscarriage of justice.”
An elderly eyewitness interviewed by police said he did not see the dog urinate on the ground. Francis Bush, 88, said he did observe McConico spray her hose at the dog and Wolfe and saw Wolfe hit the woman with his metal rod.
“He was unsure if the male was trying to hit the hose out of her hand or if he was trying to strike her,” the police report states.
Bush said he’s never had an issue with Wolfe, who he sees walking his dog almost every day. He noted McConico is very particular about her yard.
Ultimately police said they declined to press charges due to the lack of independent witnesses and the conflicting accounts of McConico and Wolfe.
But to many who’ve witnessed the video, police badly misread the situation.
“@tampapd how do you not find this validation for an arrest?! It is clearly an assault with a weapon used against an elderly woman and evident of an unwarranted attack against her !!!!” asked one Instagram user, who viewed a video of the incident published by Stokes’ law firm.
Wrote another, “OMG…this some bulls–t, she was clearly attacked by this man and police have done nothing.”
The relationship between Tampa’s Black community and police has always been fraught. A 2020 poll published by the Tampa Bay Times found that only 7 percent of Black Tampa Bay residents said they feel safer when they see a police officer, compared to 51 percent of whites. Sixty percent of Black residents say they feel less safe.
“It’s the same community, but two different worlds,” said Joseph St. Germain, lead pollster for the Tampa Ban partnership, a coalition of business leaders who conducted the survey.
Just under 500 people have signed the petition, which seeks criminal charges against Wolfe.
“By ignoring such serious offenses, we are perpetuating a culture of impunity which continues to endanger innocent lives like Benita Mcconico,” the petition states. “It’s imperative that the State recognizes the severity of assault with a deadly weapon and carries out appropriate actions to secure justice for Benita.”
According to McConico’s attorney, Wolfe has repeatedly shown up in front of McConico’s home, where the altercation took place on June 6. Stokes said Wolfe carries the same pole and has snapped pictures of her client’s home and automobile. He is threatening to countersue McConico, she said.
“This is not just harassment, it’s a failure of justice,” Stokes said. “We cannot allow someone to repeatedly abuse and intimidate others, especially within the Black community, and face no legal consequences.”
A person claiming to be a neighbor of Wolfe’s said he’s a menace who makes those who live near him feel “unsafe and upset.”
“He has been intimidating us with his demeanor, dog, metal pole that he carries and apparently, a gun,” the neighbor, who identified himself as Paul, wrote on the petition site. “This man is unhinged, absolutely not fit for a firearm. An arsenal was taken from his house and later returned.”
The neighbor said he often calls police over minor infractions like parking and even when someone allows their dog to defecate in his yard.
“We wave, say hello, everything, and he stares meanly and curses under his breath as he creeps by with his dog. …This man has been causing us problems since before we even moved in,” the neighbor wrote.
