PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – State Rep. Daphne Campbell, D-Miami, stopped by Local 10 News on Monday to refute a criminal allegation made by Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief that a gun was pulled on her during an argument over politics two weeks ago in a radio station parking lot.
Campbell said she was angry that Sharief had listed her in various publications as having endorsed her reelection campaign, when, in fact, she said she was endorsing Sharief's opponent, Alexandra Davis.
But Campbell said nobody was angry enough to pull a gun -- the allegation that is now under criminal investigation by the Broward Sheriff's Office.
"There was no gun," Campbell said. "No one did have a gun, no one talked about a gun, (there was) no physical aggressive behavior at all. She's a liar."
Sharief said that during the Aug. 1 argument over her claiming the Campbell endorsement in the parking lot of the WAVS Caribbean radio station in Davie, Daphne Campbell's brother-in-law, Jeremiah Campbell, emerged from the station with a gun in his hand.
"He didn't point the gun at me. He pointed his other hand at me," Sharief said, adding that she feared for her life. "He proceeded to yell at me and my husband and he said he would bust my husband in the head."
Sharief, however, didn't call the Davie Police Department that night. Instead, she called her close friend and political ally, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, the following day and BSO began its investigation, which is ongoing.
"I thought it was too late to call him that night," said Sharief of the altercation, which occurred around 11 p.m.
Daphne Campbell said Sharief made up the gun incident and that she is trying to use her political connections with the sheriff to punish Campbell for her lack of endorsement.
"She used (her political ties to Israel) to make a false report," said Daphne Campbell.
Jeremiah Campbell has a legal permit to carry a gun, but he said it was in his car the entire time. He also said that he was in the studio conducting his own radio show at the time the alleged altercation happened.
"Could I be inside and outside at the same time?" Jeremiah Campbell asked rhetorically. "Everything is made up."
Daphne Campbell also filed an elections commission complaint against Sharief on Monday, alleging the false endorsement.
Sharief claimed that Daphne Campbell had called her Broward County office and asked her to include her in her list of campaign endorsements. Daphne Campbell said that's also untrue, noting that endorsements must be in writing and that she had endorsed Sharief's opponent, Miramar Commissioner Alexandra Davis, months before.
"I never endorsed (Sharief)," said Daphne Campbell.
Sharief said the BSO is investigating the incident as an aggravated assault with a firearm.
"I know he had a gun," Sharief said. "I saw the gun."
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