[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A 74-year-old man in the small town of Crete, Nebraska is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he allegedly shot and seriously wounded seven of his neighbors — including four very young children.
According to the Nebraska State Patrol, a man identified as Billy Booth opened fire on Friday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. local time in the 1200 block of Crestline Drive in the small town of Crete. That city hosts about 7,000 residents and Doane University, and is the most populous town in rural Saline County southwest of both Lincoln and Omaha.
Per cops, they started receiving calls about an active shooter situation on Friday afternoon and rushed deputies to the scene. Officers got to the scene so quickly that they could “still hear gunfire occurring” as they pulled up. They quickly determined that several people inside a home there had been wounded, and that the gunfire was coming from a house across the street.
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After deputies rushed people away from the home and took six victims to the Crete Area Medical Center for treatment, they called in a SWAT Team. Over the next two hours, there was a standoff before the team entered another home on the street from which the shots had been fired. Inside the home, they discovered Booth dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A shotgun was found right next to his body; it was believed to be the only weapon used in the shooting.
As for the victims, six of the seven had been outside at the time of the shooting. The seventh was struck with a bullet while inside the home. Cops have declined to identify the victims, though they did note that four of the seven people shot were children ranging in age from 3 to 10 years old. The other three were adults ranging in age from 22 to 43 years old. Interestingly, while six of the seven victims were transported to the hospital immediately, the seventh only “realized hours later that he had been struck” with a bullet and was taken to the hospital late that night. What?! Talk about delayed trauma!
Thankfully, four of the seven victims have already been released from the hospital. Even better, all seven are expected to survive the “non life-threatening” injuries they sustained in the attack, per the NSP. So, that’s good. Still, what a horrific situation — and for what?? What was even the motive for a neighbor to do that?!
Crete Police Chief Gary Young Jr. cited some law enforcement intelligence about that exact subject during a press conference. According to Chief Young, there was a history between the suspect and the victims. Young indicated that Booth had made several official complaints to police about the victims in the recent past:
“Not necessarily associated with the victims’ house, but cars driving too fast in the neighborhood, improper parking, nuisance properties, quality-of-life type issues.”
As for the victims, who are all believed to be Hispanic, they filled out their own police report in May about an apparent altercation they had with Booth telling them to go “back to where they came from,” per Chief Young:
“There was a single report from the victims that the suspect had flipped them off, told them to ‘go home’ or ‘back to where they came from,’ and to ‘speak English.’”
Jeez…
At the time, the Crete PD was willing to escalate the family’s case, per Chief Young. However, they declined to do so. The police chief explained:
“That resolved the situation, so we had no further contact.”
Obviously, that all changed with the shooting on Friday. When asked if there was possibly a racial element to the incident, the chief noted:
“There could be, we don’t know. Certainly the context of ‘go home’ and ‘speak English’ lends itself to that.”
No kidding…
Such an absolutely horrific situation all around. We can at least thank goodness that those seven victims — and especially those poor, innocent children — weren’t killed in this senseless and awful act of violence.
To learn more about the impact of gun violence, visit https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence
If you’re experiencing emotional distress related to incidents of mass violence, you can call or text the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or visit their website at https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/disaster-distress-helpline for more resources.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, help is available. Consider contacting the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, by calling, texting, or chatting, or go to 988lifeline.org.
To learn more about civil rights issues, check out https://www.splcenter.org/.
[Image via Nebraska State Patrol/YouTube]
