Life Imitates Art for 'Hood' Video Producer
A Florida man claims police targeted him because of his violent documentary.
Oct. 16, 2007 — -- A Florida video producer charged last week with four counts of attempted murder says that police targeted him because of a DVD he hosted that graphically portrays the community's gangster underbelly.
Allan Burney, 19, is co-host and producer of "Da Hood Gone Wild," a documentary-style film that features life in North Greenwood, Fla., a low-income, largely black Clearwater neighborhood.
The video, available online, is described as one of the "craziest" you will ever see. "Go deep into the hood at night, when things get bad, REAL BAD," a promotion reads on "Da Hood Gone Wild" Web site. "Fights, cops, whipz (sic), and lets (sic) not forget some of the baddest hoes around." The previews posted include shots of fights, wads of cash, drugs and tricked-out cars.
But now Burney's life is imitating his art — he claims that the film flaunting an often dangerous and illegal lifestyle in his neighborhood made him a target for police.
Burney surrendered to police in Clearwater Thursday. The attempted-murder charges stem from an Oct. 8 shooting that left a 23-year-old man dead, another injured and forced area schools into lockdown. Another 19-year-old, Gaylord Shaw, has been charged with first-degree murder.
Clearwater police say that witnesses and victims "positively identified" Burney as one of the shooters who opened fire on a car as it drove away from a convenience store where an argument had taken place. The car veered, crashing into a pole. Michael Scott was at the wheel and was hit during the shooting, police say, and he was also injured in the car crash. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Clearwater police describe the fatal shooting as a result of an ongoing feud between two groups. But Burney, who now sits in the Pinellas County Jail on $400,000 bond, claims that he was inside a house near the scene of the fatal shooting.
"It seems as if Allan has become the popular scapegoat for the Clearwater Police Department regarding any crime in Greenwood," a representative of "Da Hood Gone Wild" wrote in an e-mail to ABC News.
