In this grim and tragic story out of Bend, Oregon, 31-year-old Brennan Pebbles was left as the only man standing following a three-man gunfight in his home.
It all started shortly after midnight on October 20, when Pebbles’ roommate, 33-year-old Kyle Adams, suddenly awoke to find an uninvited visitor standing in his bedroom. The visitor was Adams’ and Pebbles’ neighbor, 31-year-old Tyler Herrick, and he did not have permission to be there. When asked to leave, Herrick allegedly spoke “unintelligible gibberish” to Adams and stayed put. However, using some verbal persuasion, Adams managed to get him out the door.
Adams then texted Pebbles to relate what had happened, at which point Pebbles immediately left his workplace at 10 Barrel Brewing.
Scarcely an hour after that, Herrick was standing outside their living room window with an AR-15, looking right at them. Herrick fired the rifle, and the round hit Adams in the head as Pebbles dove for cover.
Herrick walked around the building and fired at the front door in an attempt to gain entry. The door remained locked, so he went back to the shattered window and climbed through. He then began “methodically hunting down” Pebbles, according to Deschutes County DA John Hummel.
Hiding in his bathroom with a gun, Pebbles waited for the killer to make his way there. As soon as Herrick entered the bathroom, Pebbles shot him fatally with his 9mm handgun.
When police arrived, Herrick was dead, while Adams was still fighting for his life. He died after being rushed to the hospital.
“Adams and Pebbles had done nothing to entice Herrick or cause him to fire,” said Hummel, adding that this incident was one of the most senseless and shocking cases he had ever seen in his career. Asked to guess at Herrick’s motive for this unprovoked attack, Hummel said it could have been a “monumental mental health collapse.”
“We’re kind of freaked out,” said Lizbeth Torres, the victims’ next-door neighbor.