Man threatens to kill neighbor during town meeting

EDGEWATER, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Authorities said Leonard Towsley yelled while standing at the podium during the public comment portion of Edgewater City Council meeting, even threatening to kill neighbor.  

"I have reached my end. I'm about ready to kill that piece of [expletive] Hamilton and then I'm going to end up taking my life own," he said.  "You're going to have two dead bodies laying in the middle of the street that you are going to have to answer for because of that scumbag."  

Police say the man Towsley says he wants to kill is his next door neighbor.  Seconds later his verbal attacks were aimed at two council members.  

"Do you two [expletive] want to go to prison because of him for a double murder, because that's how it works isn't it since they're the cause of it he goes to prison?" Towsley asked. 

In the midst of his tirade, the mayor ordered police to escort Towsley out the door.  

Towsley told The News Station Thursday that he's fired up about a three-year-dispute he's had with his next door neighbor, William Hamilton.  There's a twenty foot wide stretch of public right of way that sits between their properties. Towsley showed us a permit he got in 2004 that allowed him to put sod on that right of way to blend it in with his front yard.  Hamilton told The News Station by phone that he got a permit to pave the public right of way.  

The city says Hamilton's had the permits to do the work he did to the right of way.  Towsley has been disputing that for three years, according to city leaders.  

Towsley told the news station that he has no intention of killing himself or his neighbor, saying he made those comments to get attention.

"We had to get the ball rolling. If that's what it took to get something done here, that's what I had to do," said Towsley.

Edgewater Police made Hamilton aware of Towsley's statements after the meeting Monday night.  Hamilton applied for a restraining order against Towsley, but says it was denied by a judge.  Edgewater Police took statements from witnesses who were at the commission meeting.  They've turned those of to the State Attorneys office.  Prosecutors have not yet decided if they will pursue charges against Towsley.