In 1992, the children’s TV series Barney & Friends made its debut on PBS. Now, the man behind the show’s inspiration will spend more than a decade behind bars for shooting his neighbor.
According to the Daily Mail, Patrick Leach, 29, the son of Barney creator Sheryl Leach, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for a 2013 assault is Los Angels, California that left one man nearly dead.
After an argument about trespassing, Leach fired multiple shots from his .45 caliber handgun, hitting a 49-year-old neighbor in the chest, before fleeing in his vehicle.
Leach was apprehended by police a short while later wearing body armor and was also armed with a number of weapons, according to law enforcement officials.
He pleaded no contest in May to assault with a semiautomatic firearm and shooting from a motor vehicle, causing great bodily injury.
The Mail reports Leach was the inspiration for Barney, as a dinosaur exhibit in a museum captivated him as a child.
“When my son Patrick was a toddler I was always looking for ways to entertain him and keep him busy. I felt that if the storylines worked with my son, they would work with all children – Patrick was an excellent focus group of one!” She was once quoted as saying.
Patrick is also listed as a co-author of 1997’s Barney’s Book of Hugs.
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