911 call: ‘It’s my wife ... she shot me’
Bleeding from multiple bullet wounds, man says spouse is to blame.
BOYNTON BEACH — A man lay bleeding by the front door of his Boynton Beach home Monday night just feet from the shooter — his wife.
Yet it was Eric Barreca who called 911, pleading with the dispatcher to send an ambulance as soon as possible. He feared he was going to die.
His wife, Lisa, claimed he’d threatened to kill her. She faces an attempted murder charge for firing multiple bullets into him at their home on the 3800 block of Aspen Leaf Drive, off Lawrence Road south of Hypoluxo Road.
Eric Barreca’s 18-minute 911 call starts with him telling a dispatcher he’d been shot “about seven times.”
“How exactly did this happen?” the dispatcher asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s my wife. I smacked her and
she (expletive) shot me.
“I’m shot in the (expletive) head, the arms, all over.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Eric Barreca, 53, was in stable condition, authorities said. Lisa Barreca, also 53, also was hospitalized for a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the leg. She was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail early Thursday.
The 911 call captured the dispatcher’s struggle to gather infor-
mation from the angry couple. Records indicate they fought over homeowners association complaints in their Aspen Glen neighborhood before the woman shot her husband and herself.
About four minutes into the call, the dispatcher tells the woman: “Ma’am, don’t argue with him. He’s been badly injured and needs to preserve his energy.”
Lisa Barreca, who officers noted showed “no signs of emotion or remorse,” couldn’t tell the dispatcher how many times she shot Eric. But she insisted “he threatened my life.”
Neighbors told The Post they weren’t surprised Lisa Barreca’s fights over HOA codes turned deadly.
“I think some of those bullets could have been intended for me or the (HOA vice president) or my family,” HOA President Damien Ferraiolo told The Post on Tuesday. “She is a very unstable, unhappy person. She harassed several of her neighbors all of the time and had a vendetta against me.”
Police were at the Barreca’s home Monday afternoon for “neighbor trouble,” records show. They returned two hours later.
Ferraiolo said that Lisa Barreca had been playing music loudly and pointing a floodlight at her next-door neighbor’s home after that person recently filed a complaint with the HOA against Barreca. Records show that Boynton Beach police have responded to the Barreca residence seven times since May for various incidents.
Police recovered a .380 Ruger handgun from the home, as well as seven spent shell casings. Eric Barreca said the gun belonged to his wife but that it was registered in his name.
Although Lisa Barreca faces a serious charge, Ferraiolo said he’s worried “we will have to deal with her again.”