Seven people — four of them children under the age of 10 — were shot Friday afternoon by a Nebraska neighbor who later apparently killed himself.
The shooter, 74-year-old Billy Booth, apparently had a history of complaining about the Hispanic family in the Crete home, including a report that he demanded the family go “back where you came from” and “speak English.” NBC News reported.
The family declined to escalate that case at the time.
Asked if he thought the shooting could have been racially motivated, Crete Police Chief Gary Young Jr. said, “There could be, we don’t know.”
“Certainly the context of ‘Go home’ and ‘Speak English’ lends itself to that,” he said.
Young also said that Booth apparently blamed the family for “cars driving too fast in the neighborhood, improper parking, nuisance properties, quality-of-life type issues” that were “not necessarily associated with the victims’ house.”
The Nebraska State Patrol said 911 calls came in at about 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Crete police officers and Saline County deputies arrived within minutes and could hear gunfire. The found several victims inside the home and determined the gunfire was coming from the house across the street.
Six victims were transported to Crete Area Medical Center, and the seventh realized later he’d been shot and took himself to the hospital.
The three adults wounded ranged in age from 22 to 43. By Saturday afternoon, four patients had been treated and released. None of the injuries were believed life-threatening.
The state patrol said that other officers formed a perimeter around the scene as the victims were being evacuated. A SWAT team was called in. Shortly after 6:30 p.m., the SWAT team entered the home across the street and found Booth dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
They found a shotgun near the gunman and another firearm inside but said they believed the shotgun was the only weapon used.
Most of the victims of the shooting were outside in the yard when the gunfire started, but at least one was struck inside the house.
Nebraska State Patrol Col. John Bolduc said at a news conference that Booth apparently fired all his shots from inside his own home.
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