Man accused of pepper spraying another for parking in front of his home

A parking dispute led to a pepper spray attack on Glenway Street.

According to the Wauwatosa police report:

A 33-year-old man arrived to visit his uncle at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12, but he couldn't park immediately in front of his uncle's house because leaves had been raked into the street for fall collection. Instead, he parked along the curb in front of a neighbor's home.

That 65-year-old neighbor charged down the driveway, irate that the 33-year-old had parked there because he had planned to blow the leaves from his yard into the gutter.

Words were exchanged and the neighbor lunged at the younger man, grabbed his shirt and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray. The younger man stumbled to his uncle's front door and told him to call police.

When officers arrived, the younger man's eyes, nose and mouth were red and irritated. He said he'd been flushing his face to reduce the pain following the spraying.

The older man said he had been pushed to the ground and had an injured shoulder. Officers didn't believe he was in pain as he rolled around the living room floor re-enacting his version of the incident. He is familiar to officers as he's made numerous threats to neighbors and members of the Police Department in the past.

The older man has had an ongoing dispute with his neighbor, and said he had contemplated buying a gun for protection. Instead, he decided on pepper spray and kept it in his pocket in case of an attack.

The older man was arrested for disorderly conduct.