Don't encourage your murderer!

Got this link from Claude Werner's email letter, and it's a doozy! It appears a couple had a long-running feud with their neighbor across the street which came to a head over shoveled snow. Supposedly the couple was tossing snow from their parking spot onto the neighbor's property. An argument ensued and he left, returning with a firearm. Apparently the couple continued to spout obscenities at him even as he pointed the gun at them, reportedly screaming "Do it!" at the guy. Unsurprisingly, he did it, shooting both of them. He then allegedly went back to his house and retrieved another gun to shoot them some more. If there's any silver lining at all to the story it's that the alleged shooter then shot himself, removing the burden of sorting it all out at trial.

A while ago we had a thread, something to the effect of "you don't know who you're messing with", and boy howdy is that ever true! Over the last few years there have been high profile cases where people have been shot over cell phone use at the movie theater, a disagreement over handicapped parking spaces, what type of things are appropriate to leave by the dumpster, refusal to wear a mask, etc. I think we've seen ample evidence it may indeed be wisest to check oneself before one wrecks oneself. It may feel good to exact revenge on people for petty poor behavior. But next time you scream obscenities at a neighbor who lets his dog crap in your yard, ask yourself is this something worth dying over, or killing? If the answer is no (and really, the answer is virtually always NO) then maybe dial it down a notch.

I would also add that of all the people to antagonize, your neighbors are some of the worst! After all, you'll potentially have to interact with or tolerate them for years. I go out of my way to cultivate a good relationship with neighbors if at all possible, although generally I don't really interact with them much. Generally being courteous and pleasant will go a long ways. Of course, many of us have heard some "neighbors from hell" stories or lived them ourselves, and it's not always possible to have rational interactions with irrational people.

Corpral_Agarn said:

Be a good neighbor, don't provoke people, if someone shows you a gun in a threatening manner best to believe they intend to use it.

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Yep. When a man tells you who he is, listen!

Good point! The video is really shocking. As Griz22 says they may be horrible but didn't deserve to die, and he's right...but you also get the sense that maybe the world isn't missing much with them gone. It seems (at least from the last crappy moments of their lives) that three terrible people collided in a disaster that was almost fated by the behaviors they embraced.