A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly pointed and sprayed sprinklers at his neighbors with special needs for more than a year because he was upset that the location of their school bus stop was in front of his home.
Antonio Roman, 61, was charged with four counts of stalking, two counts of battery, and two counts of battery of a disabled person.
Roman confessed to deputies that he used his home surveillance cameras to monitor the arrival time of the bus and then manually activated the sprinklers to spray the victims intentionally when they were escorted out of their home.
According to NBC News, one of the victims is a 17-year-old who has been diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic condition. The other victim is a 22-year-old with autism and Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, also a genetic disorder.
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Marion County deputies discovered that the sprinklers were aimed at the bus stop and would turn on at the moment the bus arrived and shut off immediately after it left.
Cellphone footage showed the sprinkler system turning on and being aimed at one student in a wheelchair as he was escorted out of his home when a school bus arrived. It immediately turned off when the bus left.
The victims’ family first contacted the sheriff’s office to report Roman in April. Roman allegedly began spraying both victims starting in August 2024. The family says the children have been sprayed more than 400 times.
Roman allegedly sprayed the children twice a day every day, when they were loaded and unloaded from the bus each day. The victims’ father said he had to wear swimming attire to shield the children from the water.
The family stated that they had contacted the school district and the homeowner’s association to request a relocation of the bus stop, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
The 61-year-old told investigators that he was upset about the location of the bus stop, which used part of his driveway for a wheelchair ramp needed by one of the victims. The sheriff’s office also reported that Roman had called their agency 75 times since June 2023 to complain about the victims.
âHis big beef was over the school bus pulling up to pick up special needs children,â said Lt. Paul Bloom with the Marion County Sheriffâs Office, per WESH. âWhen they had to lower a wheelchair ramp, it would come over on his side, towards his driveway, so this child could load up onto the school bus.â
Roman was released from jail after posting a $4,000 bond. He’ll be back in court on Sept. 16.
âSomewhere in his heart, there is 0% compassion, so we thought the best thing to do was bring him here [the jail] and give him a lot of other neighbors â inside of a jail cell. Heâs going to have learn to get along with other people,â Bloom said.
