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On December 29th, a man was fatally shot by his neighbor in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a long dispute that started with an animal complaint. Now, new details are out in a lawsuit filed by the man’s surviving family, including his wife who was shot in the leg.

It’s important to note that details are still very sparse, and we’re only getting one side of the story here. The woman who shot the man did the smart thing and refused to talk to police and asked for a lawyer. So, known details all come from the wife of the deceased, who was involved in the dispute. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and more details will probably come to light as the criminal and the civil cases wind their way through the court system.

What we do know is that the dispute between the man, who is a pastor at a local church, and his neighbor, started over a noise complaint to the neighborhood’s HOA involving dogs and chickens. In their infinite wisdom, the HOA told the woman who filed the complaint, and this resulted in a lot of nasty back-and-forth after the complaint.

We don’t know who said what and who did what, but we do know that it eventually resulted in the woman with the dogs and chickens feeling the need to shoot the neighbor and his wife.

An Important Lesson Here

Whether you’re armed or not, it’s extremely important to handle disputes with neighbors extremely carefully. You never know who’s sane and who’s crazy, and you never know how people will react to complaints. You also never know how well or how horribly the little Eichmanns who often run HOAs might handle complaints.

Again, details are sparse, but the whole thing is reminiscent of a defensive shooting that happened in Tucson, Arizona, a few years ago. A neighborly spat ended up with a man getting thrown to the ground and stomped and kicked by several neighbors, who he ended up shooting. I’d recommend reading the whole thing, but in short he managed to win but at great cost and disruption to his life.

It might look easy to play the role of the victim and claim no responsibility in what happens to us, but when people get seriously hurt or killed over something stupid, I can almost guarantee that being right would be a very cold comfort. We don’t know what caused the whole thing to escalate into a shooting, but we do know that a wife and her children are now without a father. They’d probably gladly put up with animal noises and smells until doomsday if it meant getting him back.

It’s extremely important to train in non-violent dispute resolution skills such as verbal judo. Knowing how to calm down stressful situations and knowing how to handle hard things like a complaint with dignity and style can mean the difference between life and death. Doing the opposite, and engaging in tit-for-tat instead of de-escalating the situation can lead to tragedy.

Finally, it pays to have thick skin in today’s world. Whether you’re the one doing the complaining or you’re the one being complained about, maintaining your mental health and not doing anything stupid is essential.

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84 COMMENTS

  1. “In their infinite wisdom, the HOA told the woman who filed the complaint, and this resulted in a lot of nasty back-and-forth after the complaint.”

    The HOA told the woman who filed the complaint what exactly? Something is missing here.

    • A few years ago, a fellow manager at my place of employment knowingly did something that resulted in a considerable amount of extra work for me, even though he wasn’t my supervisor and had no authority over me or my department. Actually, he had been doing this for a while, and I had had enough of it.

      I wrote a formal email (direct but polite) regarding the matter to his boss, who was an executive and part of the company’s Board of Supervisors. Instead of exercising a level of professional discretion one would expect from an executive, he instead walked into the manager’s office and openly stated my name when requesting a dialogue about my complaint. That opened up an unfortunate animosity from the manager against me that I had to deal with for the next couple of years.

      Stupid abounds.

      • “Instead of exercising a level of professional discretion one would expect… “

        Are you are a fan of secret charges against those in your workplace?

        So much for that whole ‘right to confront your accuser’ stuff.

        • The “Confrontation clause” of the Sixth Amendment:

          “…only applies to criminal prosecutions, not civil cases or other proceedings. Generally, the right is to have a face-to-face confrontation with witnesses who are offering testimonial evidence against the accused in the form of cross-examination during a trial.”

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confrontation_Clause

        • Are you are a fan of secret charges against those in your workplace?

          More-or-less explains how one company I worked for acted.

          You could be accused of something you didn’t know about and then get punished for it. If the accusation came from a manager, managers were protected by a “lese majeste” (injured majesty) rule where a statement that could cause the manager to lose the respect of their peers and subordinates was considered inadmissible.

          Manager accuses me of stealing company shirts. His “evidence”? His work shirt is more faded than mine and I’ve been in the company longer. His logic, I’m stealing shirts. In fact, I was hanging the shirt on the clothes line INSIDE-OUT and the inside of my shirt was more faded than his shirt. My evidence was considered inadmissible because it would have made the manager appear foolish to other managers and their staff.

          And there are worse stories than that. No wonder the company no longer exists.

      • You went outside of the chain of command around your boss’ back and over his head. You got found out publicly. You got what you deserved IMHO.

        • @Southern,

          The executive *was* my boss. He was also that other manager’s boss. We both reported to him, so he was the correct person to bring the matter to.

        • Haz, thanks for the clarification on the status.

          In my situation I didn’t want my position to be handed over to an id10t (the branch manager’s teenage son).

          But HR should have been cc’ed or bcc’ed into the conversation.

      • @Miner,

        I know your lack of education often presents a challenge to your comprehension of the world around you, but I’ll help you out here.

        If you note, I chose the word “discretion”, which is the exercise of wisdom during action, such as opening a conversation with someone. I expected the executive to mention my name at some point, but walking into the manager’s office and blurting out “Are you doing this to Haz?” was unprofessional.

        Kinda like how you blurt out stuff here.

    • The too many often mistakes here. The HOA informed the woman on whom the complaint was filed against of the complaint. I’m assuming they also told her who the complainee was because she did in fact shoot them.

      • There are some who think they are so special that rules don’t apply to them. Being snitched on is an affront to their self-esteem and often results in violence.

        I hope old sparky is set to slow roast instead of flash-fry.

      • First issue, why would anyone with a brain buy a home in a HOA neighborhood? Making bad choices never ends well.

        • HOA provides services people would rather not do and a legislative body some prefer.
          Not all HOAs are properly managed unfortunately.

    • The sentence structure is lame. They are saying, I do believe, that the HOA told the woman that shot the man, who it was that complained to the HOA.

    • What I was thinking. Wait a month or two and no more yapping dog and chickens until the new ones arrived.

    • My little brother taught me that truism by (his) hard knocks. He eventually win a seat on the HOA board, managed to get a few things reversed, but still could not tolerate the nannies and backstabbers and YOUR dog must be kept inside all the time and never even sneeze but MY CATS (the plural form being operant) can and WILL roam the entire area at all times day and night and can do and/or say as it pleases them.
      The resultant open animosity drove him to relocate. His biggest fear was a lawsuit for failure to disclose the madwoman’s iron hold on the whole neighbourhood. Purchase turned out to be a fellow cat lover so that worked out.

    • .40 cal Booger,

      It is getting harder and harder to find a home that is not part of a Home Owners’ Association. Last I heard something like 80% of homes are in a Home Owners’ Association.

  5. Perp was charged with murder, etc. The feud should have prompted the preacher and his wife to be armed and avoid being sitting ducks. Crowded neighborhood looks like it should have livestock orderences, etc. Best thing to keep everyone happy
    is put trees and acreage between you and the neighbors.

    • “Joe Junio has owned Mistika Spray Tanning since 2020“

      Spray tanning?

      You just can’t trust people who are obsessed with appearance over substance, never a good sign.

  6. Had some dumass people next door that “kept” a dog tied up in their backyard (with a 7 ft block wall) with and old refrigerator for a dog house. That poor critter barked constantly rain or shine. I called the Humane Society but they said it had access to water and shade so they could do nothing. Knowing a confrontation would be worthless, I got a ultrasonic bark stop machine and it took a few months but it quieted that sucker down. I feel bad that some “people” treat dogs like cattle or some shit.

      • I had a jackass next-door neighbor that moved in and let his dog bark for hours while he would leave; I trained the dog to stop by shooting it with frozen SixLets candy out of a paintball gun. Dog barks – couple shots, dog cowers in the corner of the patio, quietly. After about 3 weeks, all I had to do was stand on my deck and the dog would shut up. Why SixLets ??… after a couple of minutes they’d thaw out and the dog would eat the evidence.

    • Did the refrigerator work?
      I opened Ray’s frig to get a beer and a cat jumped out.
      I said ” Hey Ray, I cat just jumped out of your icebox.”
      He said, ” Yeah I know, I put it in there cause it sht on the floor.”

      • Apparently you can’t spell it either 🤣🤣🤣 TTAG always delivers.

        Surprisingly have not heard about this shooting. Being Las Vegas it is possible to have a fairly large lot, there are people who have horses on their property in the city limits.

  9. Complainants knew or should have known that ongoing feuds often result in fatalities. Suit dismissed, with prejudice.

    • Knowing that your neighbor wants to kill you doesn’t mean that the neighbor gets away scot free when he finally does.

      • Two sides to every coin. Knowing that your neighbor wants to kill you, you might want to desist from any harassment and/or provoking actions. Alternatively, as others have pointed out, you might want to arm up. Failure to act on the knowledge that the neighbor might want to kill you is all on you. You could always preemptively murder the neighbor, rendering the neighbor incapable of murdering you. We need to get Darwin to weigh in here.

        • So….all I have to do is threaten to kill you and you have to move? What if I only threathen to savagely beat you and assault your wife, where does that fall on the spectrum?
          This is one of the more ridiculous opinions I’ve read on here, and that is a high bar.

        • Big E – you ain’t real sharp, are you boy? I said nothing of the sort. I pointed out that the murderee had assorted options, which may or may not include moving. Why don’t you come where I live, buy or rent a bit of land, then become a pain in my ass. I will readily demonstrate how you should be handled. The day you threaten me any physical harm, you will win your Darwin award.

          Have you learned anything yet?

          BTW – we really don’t know if the lady “murdered” anyone. All we’ve heard is one side of the story. The shooter was smart, refused to talk to police, and lawyered up. It would be quite humorous if she eventually owns the dead guy’s home, and his survivors have to move in with Grandma.

  10. Don’t live where there’s an HOA.

    Like you decide one day that the government and taxes just weren’t oppressive enough so you go and join an HOA.

  11. These are good examples why Europe has outlawed open and concealed carry. When you put a deadly weapon in the hand of naked apes they will kill people for the most trivial of reasons.

    Neighbor disputes, road rage, fighting over parking spaces or even a persons place in line will result in murder when people carry weapons.

    The George Zimmerman/Travon Martin was a classic case that led to a killing that never would have taken place if Zimmerman had not been armed. Zimmerman would never have confronted a huge viscous street thug if he had been unarmed. Zimmerman was told to stay in his care until the police arrived but his handgun emboldened him to play Wyatt Earp and the result ended in a necessary death. Martin may or may not have been the house robber he was accused of being but that does not justify gunning someone down because he just peered into a house. Of course the viscous homicidal racist Far Right would disagree.

    A polite society is not an armed society, it’s a deadly one.

    • DUNDERHEAD, maybe in your “civilized countries” they should allow people to have firearms so they can protect themselves against “naked apes”?
      Travon Martin ATTACKED Zimmerman. He got what his hand called for.

    • Hard to say for sure… can’t tell if she has a tail in the video shot.
      She’s cute, nonetheless.

  13. HOAs where you pay extra to be told how to live because you really can’t stand freedom.
    In this case they paid extra for a false sense of security

  14. Here in the UK I can safely tell my nuisabnnce my bllody stupid neighbour to fuck off in safety and he or she can certainly tell me too as well and both have happened. No blows, no knives, no fucking guns Just a few ruffled feathers a period of ignoring each othe and that’s it. AS for dogs. My neighbours dogd bark evey time they leave the house but shoot em up . Not a chance How many times have the Law been involved ?? Just once and t that was a NOISE ABATEMENT matter. The only time I’ve had to resort to that kind of thing was when those bloody dogs started using my garden as a Shitting Green and I had to call min the Local Authority who own the property.
    I do not feel that I have to be at all careful of who I upset and I’m as bloody rude as aI want to be instead of bottling it up to bursting point and then shooting some poor bugger I’ve live in this house for nigh on 40 years and have witnessed agruments galore but only one case of violence and the only result of that was injured pride and a black eye. and a Police Warning [sort of]!!

    • Congrats, Albie, that’s — actually not relevant to this situation. At all.

      “No blows, no knives, no fucking guns”

      You’d better hope that your neighbor doesn’t have a “zombie knife” …

      “Tackling knife crime has become an urgent political debate after Valdo Calocane admitted to the manslaughter of three people in Nottingham, denying murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. …

      “The government has announced plans to close a legal loophole and ban the sale of “zombie” knives. Amendments to the criminal justice bill will raise the maximum sentence for the possession of banned weapons from six months to two years and give police the power to seize and destroy knives found in homes if there are reasonable grounds to suspect they will be used for serious crime.”

      Or a “ninja blade.”

      “Elba has expressed concern that there are still loopholes that allow people to carry some swords. Campaigners have called for tougher rules on swords after Ronan Kanda, a 16-year-old Wolverhampton boy, was stabbed by a fellow pupil with a 55cm (22in) “ninja blade” in November 2022.”

      Yeah, it’s a good thing that you don’t have a gun to protect yourself.

      “Figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday revealed that knife crime rose by 5% in the year to September 2023, with a total of 48,716 offences. The ONS said there was a “notable” increase in robberies involving a knife, up by 20%.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/25/why-is-knife-back-in-the-news-and-what-is-being-proposed

      • … ” no blows, no knives, no
        fucking guns ” …
        Well, get rid of the guns and knives, and I see you and your neighbor dude found a way to resolve your problem, good for the two of you. Blows and fucking, who’d a thunkit…

      • Except you fool Alien the U.K. does not have 45,000 homicides a year with guns. Now try and put a Far Right Spin on those facts.

      • 2nd attempt to post in 2 days

        Except you fool Alien the U.K. does not have 45,000 homicides a year with guns. Now try and put a Far Right Spin on those facts.

    • I can’t understand how Albert can simultaneously be such a blowhard, and a nasty єunt.

    • Violence in London is so 40 Elephants.
      BTW Albert, you never did say if you got the birthday card I sent you, I put $20 in it.

    • Albert L J Hall, the Brit, You are trying to tell us that no one in Britain ever assaults his/her neighbor with a knife of a club? Either you are a blithering idiot of a blasted liar.

      Psst! Your spelling has gone to hell again. Did the RAF allow you to write reports?

  16. I prefer to buy property next to a pawn shop because I firmly believe in the philosophy that fences make good neighbors.

    • Hah hah 🙂
      Kinda like the whore house above an out of buisness Hardware store.
      To much fcking overhead.

  18. “Verbal Judo……”. Hilarious. Really. Just, ridiculous. You MUST be an HR official in your real job.

    • I think she was a cop hired-on to do PR work for the force or something like that in her previous career. She talked about that a little in one of her articles way back.

  20. These are good examples why Europe has outlawed open and concealed carry. When you put a deadly weapon in the hand of naked apes they will kill people for the most trivial of reasons.

    Neighbor disputes, road rage, fighting over parking spaces or even a persons place in line will result in murder when people carry weapons.

    The George Zimmerman/Travon Martin was a classic case that led to a killing that never would have taken place if Zimmerman had not been armed. Zimmerman would never have confronted a huge viscous street thug if he had been unarmed. Zimmerman was told to stay in his care until the police arrived but his handgun emboldened him to play Wyatt Earp and the result ended in a unnecessary death. Martin may or may not have been the house robber he was accused of being but that does not justify gunning someone down because he just peered into a house. Of course the viscous homicidal racist Far Right would disagree.

    A polite society is not an armed society, it’s a deadly one.

  21. 2nd attempt to post in 2 days

    These are good examples why Europe has outlawed open and concealed carry. When you put a deadly weapon in the hand of naked apes they will kill people for the most trivial of reasons.

    Neighbor disputes, road rage, fighting over parking spaces or even a persons place in line will result in murder when people carry weapons.

    The George Zimmerman/Travon Martin was a classic case that led to a killing that never would have taken place if Zimmerman had not been armed. Zimmerman would never have confronted a huge viscous street thug if he had been unarmed. Zimmerman was told to stay in his care until the police arrived but his handgun emboldened him to play Wyatt Earp and the result ended in a unnecessary death. Martin may or may not have been the house robber he was accused of being but that does not justify gunning someone down because he just peered into a house. Of course the viscous homicidal racist Far Right would disagree.

    A polite society is not an armed society, it’s a deadly one. bb

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