SARASOTA COUNTY — A man told a Sarasota County 911 operator that Donna Betts, the wife of Allman Brothers Band founding member Dickey Betts, stood on her dock Monday evening looking through the scope of a rifle, which was pointed toward 100 teens and coaches with the Sarasota Crew team.
Donna Betts, 62, was arrested at her Osprey home this morning and charged with 18 counts of aggravated assault with a firearm.
According to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Betts appeared on the dock behind her home in the 300 block of Palmetto Avenue about 5:30 p.m. Monday and pointed a rifle at members of Sarasota Crew, who were in boats and on a nearby dock preparing for rowing practice. Betts allegedly threatened to shoot different crew members and coaches as she pointed the rifle at them, and made statements that if they came on her property they would be shot.Much of the incident was captured in a cellphone video, which corroborates the claims, according to deputies. Deputies recovered the weapon, which Betts allegedly threw into the water.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, Betts then called 911 at 5:43 p.m., identified herself and said that the rowers have destroyed her life.
Betts lives on a property adjacent to the crew team’s practice facility at Bay Preserve at Osprey. The man who called 911 said this wasn’t the first run-in they’ve had with Betts, and there was a restraining order against the woman.
“She’s on her dock looking through the scope and aiming at the kids right now,” the man told a 911 dispatcher who calmly told the man help was on its way. “We’ve got hundreds of kids here, she’s pointing the gun at one of my coaches generally right by me right now.”
More Gunshine State fun at the link!
And because of the connection to the Allman Brothers, here’s some music to soothe your inner Floriduh Man or Woman.
Mnemosyne
Well, it is Florida, where it’s only legal to brandish your gun if you actually kill someone. If you only threaten to kill someone, you get in a lot more trouble.
Kropadope
@Mnemosyne:
Her fault for leaving any of them alive to make a statement. ETA: All, in fact! What was she thinking?
Mike J
Jeremy Clarkson is a Florida Man who just happens to live elsewhere. Should have played Jessica.
Villago Delenda Est
The NRA wants to arm all mentally unstable people with firearms. Because it’s good for the bottom lines of the merchants of death.
MikeBoyScout
White House pulled out of meet and greet with ‘conservatives’ favorite Russian’ over suspected mob ties
https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-pulled-out-of-meet-and-greet-with-conservatives-favorite-russian-a-suspected-mobster-060026495.html
“The White House abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting in February between President Trump and a high-level Russian central banker after a national security aide discovered the official had been named by Spanish police as a suspected “godfather” of an organized crime and money-laundering ring, according to an administration official and four other sources familiar with the event.”
Kropadope
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, you need to be able to
defendcounter-offend yourself against all the psychos out there who might be packing heat.Mike in NC
Planning a trip to Tampa in June to see our friends who despise living in Floriduh.
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: The NRA seems to be part of the maskirovka:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/23/the-kremlin-and-gop-share-a-new-friend-and-boy-does-she-love-guns.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/07/top-trump-ally-met-with-putin-s-deputy-in-moscow.html
http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/03/31/inenglish/1490984556_409827.html
http://time.com/4696424/moscow-right-kremlin-republicans/
amk
The kids should all have packed heat instead of oars.
Suzanne
Florida just terrifies me at this point. My uncle and aunt moved to Sarasota a few years ago, and I haven’t gone to visit them because Florida.
burnspbesq
What the hell is going on in Ecuador? Right about now, their election results smell worse than ours, which is saying something.
Adam L Silverman
@Suzanne: They’ll rent you a shooting arn at initial point of entry for the duration of your stay.//
SWMBO
Sweet Jeebus in a chicken basket with a side of fries. Will some other state please take over so Florida doesn’t have to supply all the batshit crazy?
Lyrebird
@Suzanne: Florida did give us Betty Cracker and Adam, though!
Don’t mind me, I am full of rationalizations because my annual professional conference is in Fla. and I keep meaning to but failing to give to some fund in Trayvon Martin’s honor when I visit…
And I should be asleep…
Mart
They kicked him out of the band man; what was she supposed to do?
Suzanne
@Adam L Silverman: Florida has crazy people with guns, alligators, big fucking bugs, and my asshole Trump-loving deadbeat bio-dad. My aunt and uncle are nice people, as are Betty Cracker and Adam, but holy cannoli that’s a lot of terrifying shit in one state.
amk
@burnspbesq: So, they got their own lying dohnald but that doesn’t make them worse than murkkka.
Kropadope
@Suzanne:
And that’s before even considering they’re the first in line for return fire in our war on the environment.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I don’t know, Adam… the Allman Bros. don’t hold a candle to Tina Guo.
prostratedragon
@MikeBoyScout: Something to savor with one’s nightcap: Torshin had been invited by leaders of the National Prayer Breakfast.
efgoldman
Waitadamnminnit!
She was on her own dock, right?
If that’s not the VERY DEFINITION of Stand Your Ground I don’t know what is!
Mike G
@Villago Delenda Est:
They could go nuts and shoot a bunch of people, causing a wonderful spike in gun sales.
“The rowboat was threatening my life”
Felixmoronia
Two months after that 2nd video was recorded I lit up a fat Jamaican oiler as the Brothers took to the stage in the “Duane Allman Memorial Fieldhouse” and don’t remember a thing after. What a night!
Adam L Silverman
@Suzanne: I assume everyone here is armed, dangerous, and bugfuck nuts. Men, women, children, babies, old folks, and snow birds.
khead
A follow up to the kitteh post from last night. Not only was the little calico very sick – she was also very pregnant. I left that part out.
But I’d really like to put my foot up the ass of the people who are either (a) dumping sick pregnant cats in out neighborhood or (b) letting their sick pregnant cat roam the neighborhood.
Suzanne
@Adam L Silverman: My aunt and uncle are not any of those things. I am sure that my bio-dad is all of those things.
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Rockies (been a while): I was going for topical. They matched with the person at the center of tonight’s post.
Adam L Silverman
@Suzanne:
That’s what they want you to think…
Eric S.
@Lyrebird: Texas dis give us … never mind.
Alabama dis give us … hmmm
West Virginia gabe us John Cole.
Hey, it does work on occasion!
SFAW
@Mike G:
And, no, they don’t sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” when they’re on the water. Nor do the coxswains yell “Stroke!”
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: If the unraveling of all this Russian mess also shows the NRA’s ties to Russia and somehow helps dismantle it, that will be a very good thing.
Suzanne
O/T, but has anyone had luck with castor oil for regrouping eyelashes?
Suzanne
REGROWING eyelashes, rather. DYAC.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: I have never heard of that. It’s a thing? Do you apply it to the eyelid/eyelashes?
Suzanne
@Yarrow: Yes, with a little bush. Supposedly works on brows, too. But I am skeptical. A lot of people here do natural foods and body care things, so I was curious if anyone had ever done it.
normal liberal
@Suzanne:
I keep seeing it touted as working, I even got the oil and a very small brush, but I can’t work up the nerve to try it. I don’t think I want castor oil in my eyes.
I hope some BJ denizen can enlighten both of us.
SgrAstar
@Suzanne:
And, you forgot the sinkholes, Burmese pythons, chikungunya, dengue, zika, and the occasional hurricane. Aieeeee!
Yarrow
@Suzanne: I googled it after you commented because I’d never heard of it. They sure are making a lot of claims about it. Seems like it might be worth a go.
@normal liberal: I’d be afraid I’d get the oil in my eyes, too.
sanjeevs
@Adam L Silverman: Its seems Flynn was fired by Obama in April 2014 because of this https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/31/michael-flynn-new-evidence-spy-chiefs-had-concerns-about-russian-ties and not due to erratic behaviour.
So by August Obama knew that Trump was working with Russia on the hacking, knew the national security chief advisor to Trump (and conference speaker) was possibly a Russian agent. He probably knew a bunch of other stuff we don’t know either.
So why do you think Obama didn’t do more. Was it really just McConnell. We’re talking the most serious attack on the U.S ever (and I’m including 911 and Pearl Harbour)
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
April the giraffe is still pregnant, poor girl, and she looks soooooooooo miserable. She just can’t get comfortable. A few minutes ago she was lying down with her head tucked under her hind leg like the world’s biggest, most oddly configured cat. Sometimes you can see the calf moving inside her belly – I shudder to think of being on the outside of a 150-pound fetus with hooves. Come on, calf, beat it on outta there!
Why yes, I am a little obsessed.
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
You put it in the cat’s food, kitty gets pissed and rakes your face. If your reflexes are good enough, it combs your eyelashes really nicely
Adam L Silverman
@SgrAstar: Also chimpanzees. And the herpes infected monkees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/magazine/tampa-monkey.html
https://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/the-other-wild-monkeys-of-florida/
http://nypost.com/2013/09/12/herpes-infected-monkeys-terrorize-florida/
Adam L Silverman
@sanjeevs: This information has been known for a while. That said, I have no idea why the President did what he did or did not do what he didn’t do.
TenguPhule
Florida, if its not the anacondas, the mosquitos, the alligators or the sinkholes trying to kill you, its your neighbors.
TenguPhule
@sanjeevs:
Trump would have started a Civil War by calling “baseless allegations” and calling for his supporters to “take back their country” and the GOP in the house and senate would have backed him all the way.
President Obama literally faced a no-win scenario that ended in only one outcome, Constitutional Crisis.
Of course his solution wasn’t exactly optimal for the rest of us, but he may have thought that the GOP rank and file wouldn’t doubledown on their treason….unfortunately he called that one dead wrong.
Steeplejack
Given the topic, maybe should’ve gone with “One Way Out.”
Steeplejack
@MikeBoyScout:
What the fucking fuck?!
Steeplejack
@prostratedragon:
Inorite?!
Chris T.
Fortunately, global warming induced sea level rise will soon drown most of Florida.
Steeplejack
@Chris T.:
I don’t feel sorry for Florida Man, but I’ve had some good times on the Gulf Coast. Sorry to see it go—or, technically, move closer to Atlanta, I guess.
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I seem to remember that a few years ago, the NRA (or an official thereof) was advocating guns for the blind. And what Stevie Wonder had to say about it: “Imagine me with a gun, It’s just crazy.”
burnspbesq
Lest we forget, there are two generations for whom Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers are the quintessential Florida band.
Robert Sneddon
@Amir Khalid: I helped out once with an outreach program that was taking young adults out of care homes and support centres and giving them experiences they’d not normally be expected to take part in, like pistol shooting. We had two people who were blind who got to shoot pistol at the range, heavily supervised of course. Other experiences were things like skydiving for kids who were wheelchair-bound, off-road buggy driving etc.
Amir Khalid
@Robert Sneddon:
The NRA official I’m thinking of wanted something rather different: that blind people be free to use firearms without any supervision, just like sighted people — which, he argued, was their right per the Second Amendment.
MattF
@TenguPhule: You left out the flying cockroaches.
Zinsky
Probably decades of drug use have fried this woman’s brain! It sounds like she needs mental health counseling. Where was Dickey when all this shit was going down? I still think “Melissa” is one of the best acoustic guitar ballads ever written, but Gregg Allman plays it pretty languidly on the embedded video above.
The Pale Scot
Dickey’s been an ass since he started dopin’ in the seventies, I guess it’s rubbing off on his wife.
raven
I must have did somebody wrong. . . .
The Pale Scot
Should have From The Madness Of The West, Dickey’s best solo
It’s not well known because the album Reach For the Sky disappeared when the Brothers move from Capricorn to Chrysalis and then back.
raven
The bell has tolled
satby
@Suzanne: @normal liberal: @Yarrow: my exchange daughter Qunoot used it, very common where she’s from, and eyebrows assume real importance in presentation when you wear a hijab. Castor oil is really thick and gummy, so if you do it use a very small amount.
I use all of the “magical” natural oils when I make soap and lotions, and the claims that are made about coconut and castor oil just make me laugh. Even so, the fatty acids differ for each and contribute different qualities. I doubt that any of them do more than nicely moisturize, but if it makes people happy to use them and they think it helps, ok.
Just One More Canuck
@normal liberal: @Suzanne: @satby: there might be reason to be skeptical about it – when you google it, all of the hits are from sites trying to sell you something. “20 strange but effective uses for castor oil” sounds a lot like “Try this one weird trick”
J R in WV
My parents lived in Osprey for years after they retired, until Mom got too ill and frail to go back and forth, they went south in early fall and stayed until it got too hot for them in late spring.
It’s a tiny little west coast FL town between Venice and Sarasota, and for a coastal FL town was pretty nice. OF course, my folks didn’t have a beach front place, which costs an order of magnitude more than a place on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway, which was about a half mile west of their place. There was an oyster bar by the drawbridge, $0.25 per and a cold beer was a buck… you could be there in 5 minutes on a bicycle.
Not bad for Florida. Betts lady sounds like she needs help!
satby
@Just One More Canuck: all that crap is, the same skepticism should apply to all the magical coconut oil claims. It’s an oil, you can cook with it and moisturize with it. It doesn’t “heal” eczema, doesn’t pull bacteria out of your mouth (more than swishing any other liquid does except mouthwashes), or any of the other bizarre stuff they claim. But the fad will move on in a year or so to the next weird trick.
evodevo
CASTOR OIL?? On your eyelids??? Sorry, just another myth perpetuated by people who have NO knowledge of basic biology. Oil does nothing to promote GROWTH of hair. New lashes would require new eyelid hair follicles, and that is NOT influenced by anything you put on the dead hair shaft. All it would do is make your eyelashes shiny – and mess up your contact lenses. Sucker born every minute, and in the field of beauty products, make that every second.
satby
@evodevo: it’s rife with woo, that’s for sure.
Debbie1
@TenguPhule: Yeah, President Obama called it wrong in the 2016 elections. Uh-huh. You people.
boatboy_srq
Figures this genius would be living on the wrong side of Sarasota Bay and the ICW. Nicest thing to say about Osprey is that there are only two traffic lights and they’re usually green for US 41 traffic so blowing through isn’t terribly difficult.
@Suzanne: Sarasota is fine – south of Fruitville, north of Stickney Point / Clark, and west of Beneva (or do I mean Swift/Tuttle?). There are some recently developed communities out to the east as well (The Meadows and Lakewood Ranch in particular).
Gravie
Just another rich and/or famous asshole who thinks she rules the world, or at least her corner of it. Considered sane enough to own a gun, too.
louc
@Chris T.: Unfortunately, the part of Florida mostly likely to drown is the bluest portion, eg, South Florida. There’s a joke in Florida (where I grew up): The farther south you go in Florida, the farther north you get. The west coast was populated by Republican retirees from the midwest, so they’re conservative. South Florida was populated by New York retirees and is more liberal. Then the panhandle is known as Redneck Riviera and South Alabama for a reason.
boatboy_srq
@MikeBoyScout: @prostratedragon: @Steeplejack: These are the idjits who insist the Wall of Separation doesn’t exist, and will tell their constituents that it’s their Mission From Gun-Totin’ Capitalist Jeebus to remake Ahmurrrca into the Righteous Xtian Nation it was intended to be. So apparently it’s perfectly OK these days for FundiEvangelical Xtians to sell indulgences, just so long as they don’t have to pay Teh Tackses on the revenue.
Larryb
I’m guessing she’s not a morning person.