Feud between gun range, fruit grower resolved — not with a bang, but a restraining order

A hostile, years-long feud involving a gun range owner, a fruit farmer, a bulldozer, targets rigged with the binary explosive Tannerite and flamethrowers has ended peaceably for now, with a pair of restraining orders.

Kevin Barber, 45, and Perla Vargas, 40, live and work on their small fruit farm in an agriculture community way, way west of Homestead. After moving to their current property three years ago, the military veteran and his fiance hoped for a peaceful settlement to grow their fruit and raise their daughter.

That’s not what they got. The gun range next to their property, Henry’s Sports Shooting Range, and its owner, Henry La Due, have made them fear for their safety, they said. Both Vargas and Barber alleged that La Due, 74, threatened them verbally on numerous occasions after the couple complained to police about explosions and other disruptions emanating from the range.

What’s more, they felt that police weren’t taking their complaints very seriously.

READ MORE: Outgunned: A firing range’s neighbors say it is a noisy nuisance. Florida law says tough

Undeterred, Barber and Vargas filed requests in court for sanctions against La Due, seeking “protection against stalking violence.” This time they came armed — with video showing the neighbor and his customers doing exactly what the couple said they were doing.

This past Monday, April 17, the couple were granted permanent restraining orders by County Judge Javier Enriquez. La Due failed to show up for the scheduled court hearing. A woman who answered the phone at the gun range hung up on a reporter upon the caller identifying herself.

“It felt like this was a long time coming,” said Barber in response to Judge Enriquez’s action. “I’m very happy with the results but it was a lot of stress. There was a burden to bear on this road that we were on and it was unkind. I think now there is a chance for a new beginning.”

In court on Monday, Barber recounted to Judge Enriquez the series of events that led to that hearing.

Barber explained that the feud began after he called the police on the gun range for the first time back in February 2022, reporting excessive, loud explosions went throughout the day. He said after that call to police, La Due’s hostility toward him and Vargas escalated. Barber alleged La Due pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him and also threatened to shoot their dog. What La Due operated next door seemed not to be a typical firing range. Videos posted online showed patrons scorching the foliage with flame throwers, firing guns from inside the shell of an auto in what was jokingly termed road rage practice and blasting targets rigged with the explosive Tannerite.

On top of that, Barber claimed that individuals, frustrated upon finding the firing range closed, would fire volleys into his grove, which doubled as the location of his home. However, without video evidence, the police did not make any arrests. Barber felt officers were not going to move forward on anything until he presented evidence.

That’s when Barber and Vargas made the decision to buy and install cameras in the trees facing the firing range.

Those cameras captured plenty.

In court, Barber presented video that he said showed La Due using a bulldozer to scrape up gravel they had used to improve the grade on the road outside the couple’s property and move it to the road by his own property. He showed a video of La Due strolling over to their land, directly in front of an unseen surveillance camera, and deliberately kicking over a fence post.

Barber said that in both March and in April, individuals Barber believed to be gun range patrons fired into their property. That too was captured on video, which he shared with the judge. He said even though they had reported these incidents to the police, they didn’t feel enough was being done to keep them safe — which ultimately led to their requests for restraining orders.

In the most recent shooting incident on April 11, Vargas was working on the farm when she said she heard gunshots going off frighteningly nearby. After running inside for safety, she called police to report what had happened. She said she was grateful her daughter wasn’t home. The family typically works together, taking care of their fruit trees.

“I don’t even feel safe with her being outside playing around because of those shootings,” Vargas said of her daughter. “It just happens out of nowhere.”

Barber cited similar fears and called the incoming gunfire a “reckless” act that endangered both him and others in the rural community.

“Right behind our farm is a field full of people picking okra. Those bullets have a range that can fly right through our farm and strike them as well…There’s people everywhere and they’re shooting like nothing’s gonna’ happen. It’s just a matter of time, if they continue to do this, that somebody is gonna’ get hit and my greatest fear is that it’s my daughter or Perla.”

“They’re my whole world,” he said of his family.

Others in the area have expressed similar concerns. Pedro Rubio, who works at a nearby nursery, told the Herald last year that he’s witnessed patrons shooting outside the range when the business is closed.

“We’re scared that we’ll get gunned down unjustly,” Rubio said.

Judge Enriquez stated that Barber and Vargas were “credible” and that the evidence shown in court was enough to prove their claims. . Enriquez granted both Barber and Vargas permanent injunctions against La Due and required that the gun range operator undergo substance abuse and mental health evaluations. He must also enter into a batterers’ intervention program and is required to stay 500 feet away from the neighbors’ property.

Enriquez stated that if La Due violates the court’s order he could be criminally charged.

As for the future of the gun range, both Barber and Vargas said they worry that friends or patrons of the business will continue to blast away into their property and others’ with impunity. In Florida, sometimes derided as the “Gunshine State” for its lax rules on firearms, ranges have special rights. A state statute prevents local governments from making their own more restrictive rules regarding gun ranges.

Barber said La Due’s “bad karma” is his own fault and that he will be watching to ensure La Due follows the judge’s ruling.

“My intent isn’t to ruin their fun,” Barber said. “It’s only to protect my family...I hope that they understand that.”