Demented neighbor shoots dead elderly couple, sets fire to his apartment before killing himself
A man from Harlem, New York, who is being described by the residents as "demented," reportedly shot dead his neighbor and his wife, and then set his own apartment on fire before turning the gun on himself in a murder-arson-suicide case.
The man, identified as Bruce Anderson, shot and killed 79-year-old Hampton Smith in the hallway of their building on West 131st Street just after 2 pm on Friday. He reportedly killed Smith with a single bullet to his head. Anderson then ran upstairs to Smith's house and killed his wife, 62-year-old Yvette Rivera, according to police. Anderson's neighbors described the 59-year-old as a "crazy man" who liked "banging on doors."
Anderson reportedly barricaded himself in his apartment after committing the murders, according to the New York Daily News. When police arrived at the scene, they discovered Smith's body on the first-floor hallway, and then the officers heard a man yelling from a first-floor apartment: "Come and get it!"
Officers, at that point, began to smell smoke coming from his apartment and called firefighters to the scene. Reports state that over 100 firefighters rushed to the scene to put out the blaze in Anderson's apartment.
Police officers reportedly forced their way into Anderson's apartment while the firefighting crew was attempting to put out the fire, and found the suspect with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, New York Times reported. Two guns were also recovered from Anderson's apartment. The officers then discovered Rivera's body on the second floor, she also died of a gunshot wound to the head.
One of the neighbors, Mary Hall, who has been living in the building for nine years described Smith as "one of the nicest men I know," however, she called Anderson "demented" and said he was someone who had "issues" with the Smiths.
Reports state that Anderson frequently complained about the noise made by Smith's two cats, and the two men would often get into feuds over the cats that had lasted for nearly a decade.