Drive-By Shooting Meant to Stop Parents’ Testimony: Sheriff

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — A 20-year-old New Port Richey man’s troubles with law enforcement took a turn for the worse Thursday morning when Pasco County deputies say he fired shots at his parents’ home to prevent them from testifying against him in a grand theft case.

According to the sheriff’s office, Michael Robert “Bug” Barone was initially accused in a May 28 theft at his parents’ New Port Richey home. Barone entered the home around 4 a.m. with his mother and step-father’s permission to get clothes and a few other items, an arrest report states.

Barone, however, did not have permission to take ashes belonging to his mother's dead former husband, an air rifle, gun sight, hunting knife, three magazines and other items totaling more than $1,000 in value, an arrest report said.

When Barone’s parents realized the items were missing, they contacted their son and at some point law enforcement. Barone told his parents he would return the items, the report said, but he never did.

A deputy spoke with the victims for an update on the alleged theft on June 15 and were told the items had never been returned, the report noted. The parents also told a deputy at that time Barone had been “calling and threatening to kill (them) if they pursue criminal charges,” the report said.

On early Thursday morning, deputies say Barone took the threats to a new level. Around 3:45 a.m., the arrest report says, Barone “actually and intentionally used a handgun to shoot multiple rounds into his mother’s home.” His mother and step-father were in their Teak Street home at the time, the report noted, but were not injured.

The parents told deputies they saw Barone in a black sedan as he fired the rounds, the report noted. The two were scheduled to go to the Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney’s Office to give sworn testimony against Barone Thursday morning in regard to the May theft, the report noted.

Barone now faces witness tampering and grand theft charges.

He was booked into the Land O’ Lakes Jail Thursday.

Booking photo courtesy of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office