OAN’s Abril Elfi
4:23 PM – Sunday, June 30, 2024
Seven people, including four children, have been shot by a neighbor who told them to “go back to where they came from” and to “speak English.”
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Just before 7 p.m. on Friday, Billy Booth, 74, opened fire on his neighbors from inside his Crete home before fatally turning the gun on himself, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.
Though the majority of the victims were shot outside, there were roughly 15 people inside and outside the house.
Four of the victims were children, ages three to 10, and three of the victims were adults, ages 22 to 43, according to police, who spoke with KETV and NBC News.
After receiving care, a few of the victims were freed. Two are receiving care at Children’s Nebraska in Omaha, and one is in Lincoln for treatment.
All of the victims are believed to be Hispanic, police told NBC.
When the police got there, they discovered the suspect inside his own house and victims outside the house with gunshot wounds. Nearby, a shotgun was found.
Although Booth and the family had a history of disagreements over parking and other annoyances, police stated that they did not believe there was a fight in the moments before the shooting. They also mentioned a report from someone claiming that the suspect had “told them to go back to where they came from and to speak English.”
Crete Police Chief Gary Young Jr. stated during a Saturday news briefing that the department has dealt with “several complaints” in the neighborhood since 2021, the majority of which came from Booth about “driving behavior” in the area.
“Not necessarily associated with the victims’ house, but cars driving too fast in the neighborhood, improper parking, nuisance properties, quality-of-life type issues,” Young said. “There was a single report from the victims that the suspect had flipped them off and told them to ‘go home’ or ‘back to where they came from’ to ‘speak English.’”
According to the police, the family decided at that point not to pursue the matter further and that everything had been settled.
Joshua Morales, a friend of the victims, told KETV he was aware of the neighbor’s past incidents and thought the shooting was motivated by race.
“[Booth] was supposedly telling [the friend’s] parents to go back to their country, and they got into problems. And I guess until now, the dude just shot the house up. I guess it was just a racist thing that happened,” Morales said. “So, I guess the dude that shot them was just racist ’cause he shot a Hispanic family and he told a Hispanic family to go back to their country.”
According to Morales, the gunman shot both his friend and his friend’s mother, who was shot four times in the back.
The police stated that they are still looking into the shooting’s motivation.
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