Claycomo man claims he was sprayed by weed killer in alleged hate crime
By Greg Payne
Click here for updates on this story
CLAY COUNTY, Missouri (KCTV) — A man in Clay County believes he was the target of a hate crime by a local road service group.
“Walk along up and down our section of yard and sidewalk, I just look to make sure there are no weeds,” said Bryan Bosch.
It’s something Bosch has been doing for many years so, the Special Roads District in the Village of Claycomo doesn’t have to spray his area down.
“For the past five years I’ve asked them ‘Please do not spray my yard, please do not spray the sidewalk, I pull the weeds myself; I have small dogs.’ They’ve killed our grass the past five years, they’ve killed our flowers the past five years, I don’t want my dogs dying, and I’ve never had an issue,” said Bosch.
Bosch told KCTV that all changed about two weeks ago when his ring doorbell camera caught the moment he was pulling weeds on his property when the Special Roads District crew came by and sprayed him from head to toe with the weed killer.
“I thought why did this happen? Why did this happen all of a sudden,” Bosch said.
KCTV reached out to the city of Claycomo, who then referred us to the Claycomo Police Chief.
The Chief said he was aware of the police report filed by Bosch and said local prosecutors declined to file charges.
Bosch believes the incident was a hate crime.
He said a homophobic slur was used by one of the crewmembers and he says the Special Roads District is also aware that he’s disabled.
“I have systemic lupus, I have a neuromuscular disease, I have a genetic neuromuscular disease that’s extremely rare, how is it going to affect all this stuff?” Bosch asked.
He says the spray could be harmful to his health.
Even though he is fearful of retaliation, he hopes speaking up may prevent this from happening to anyone else.
“I need somebody to help me, make sure that if one of these chronic issues occurs in five to ten years, I need somebody to make sure that it’s going to be taken care of by these people,” said Bosch.
We tried to get in contact with the Special Roads District, but they have yet to respond back.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
