MEMPHIS, Tenn. – What started as a walk in the park turned into tense moments for a Memphis man when another man pulled out a gun at Overton Bark, the dog park inside of Overton Park.
Mark Tye told FOX13 that he’s been going to Overton Bark for months. But during a visit on April 8, he said dog Heidi and another dog got into a confrontation.
“The guy just felt like my dog was being aggressive, which she’s not,” Tye said. “She’s very corrective, but not at all aggressive. So he had words with me saying I was cussing his girlfriend or something like that. So when he got in my face, he didn’t get a reaction from me. So he had to go get a gun to get a reaction from me.”
Andrew Buckner, another patron of the park, just happened to be recording his dogs at the time of the altercation. That video was shared with FOX13. While Buckner records his dogs, the argument between Tye and the gunman can be heard in the background.
“Your dogs are (expletive) crazy,” a woman can be heard saying, followed by Tye saying, “Yeah, go (expletive) home.”
Another woman can be heard saying, “It’s not worth it, man. It’s definitely not worth it.”
The video then turns toward the confrontation as a man pointing a gun and walking toward Tye says, “What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? I’ll shoot you in your (expletive) face (expletive). What’s up? What’s up? Don’t get quiet with me now. Don’t get quiet with me now. I’ll shoot your (expletive). You better shut the (expletive) up talking to me because I ain’t the one to play with bro. Don’t talk to me.”
WATCH: Video shows armed confrontation between dog owners at Overton Bark
The man waves the gun around during the argument, standing feet away from Tye. Eventually, the gunman walks away.
After the gunman walks out of Overton Bark, people can be heard laughing at the gunman, one man saying, “He can’t even use no hands. He just came in here and showed it off like a trophy. That’s hilarious bro. That’s hilarious dog.”
FOX13 caught up with Buckner who said, in hindsight, he regrets antagonizing the situation, though he’s glad it didn’t escalate further.
“Once he walked away, that’s when I realized, yeah, he’s not going to do anything. But we have a lot of examples in Memphis where people have. What comes to mind is I definitely could have handled the situation better,” Buckner told FOX13.
The gunmen then gets into a dark-colored car with no license plate. A man on a phone walking toward the car can be heard saying, “Somebody’s got a gun.” The gunman replies to the man as he drives away, “I’ve got one.”
What the video doesn’t show is that Tye was also armed.
“I was thinking, ‘Should I pull my gun and shoot this guy, or should I just leave it alone?” Tye told FOX13.
Tye decided not to draw his weapon.
“Because there’s so many people at the park, a lot of kids around. All I could hear was kids screaming, yelling, playing and stuff. So, I really didn’t want to pull my gun, because if I’m going to pull it I’m going to shoot,” Tye said.
Tye told FOX13 that he doesn’t believe the gunman is from Memphis. Tye said he saw the man at Overton Bark the day before and the man told Tye that he was traveling from Wisconsin to Florida.
FOX13 checked with Memphis Police, but MPD said that officers did not take a report regarding the incident.
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