CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Pastor Marcellous Dunbar threatened to defend property that he doesn't own Thursday evening.
"You're trespassing. I'll shoot," Dunbar, the pastor of Fishers of Men World Harvest Church, told Channel 4's Tarik Minor when Minor tried to interview him.
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Realtors said Dunbar and others moved into the half-million dollar house without paying a dime.
"It was sold to a lovely family. They had plans to move in. Now we have a family with four children who don't know where to go," said Realtor Laila Salameh.
Salameh said owners closed on the home last week, but when she returned to check on the property days later, Dunbar and several others had unscrewed the locks and moved in.
Dunbar told Channel 4 by phone that he filed for adverse possession of the property, a controversial Florida statute that Dunbar says will help him solve the homeless problem in Jacksonville.
"We're going to use their property for good means. We're going to clean up the homelessness in Jacksonville," Dunbar said. "Other than that, I don't have anything else to say."
Inside the home, there is expensive furniture and even a picture of Dunbar at the door. Channel 4 spoke with the actual owners, who didn't want to be identified. They said they paid $440,000 for the house.
"I purchased the property legally, and on the same day I've got an individual that went in and filed for occupancy of the home," said the homeowner.
Clay County deputies are investigating the trespassing claims, but Dunbar said he's within the confines of Florida law.
"Do you really feel in your heart OK with this?" Channel 4's Tarik Minor asked him.
"Tarik, have a good day, sir," Dunbar said.