Omaha vigilante shoots pedophile dead after seeing him leer at kids: 'I couldn't let him do it to anyone else'
OMAHA, NEBRASKA: A man has been arrested for killing a registered sex offender in Omaha. The vigilante, 43-year-old James "Jim" Fairbanks, was arrested on Friday, May 15, for the alleged murder of a pedophile after he caught the pervert leering at children. Fairbanks was arrested for the alleged murder of 64-year-old Mattieo Condoluci. Authorities responded to a shooting call next to 43rd and Pinkney where Condoluci was found dead on the scene. Condoluci is a registered sex offender who had served a five-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a child in Sarpy County in 2006, Metro reports.
He had also been convicted of a similar crime in 1993 in Florida. Fairbanks' ex-wife, Kelly Tamayo, said that her former husband's suspected shooting of Condoluci likely happened because "Jim, like all parents, was disgusted with that man's actions and wished justice," according to a Metro report. "Again, I want it to be known that Jim is a protector who cared for some of the most vulnerable and victimized children. Please, if you can, report that Developmental Services of Nebraska had to create a special award for him because he never had to restrain kids and was always able to verbally de-escalate them. Many of them were victims of sexual abuse," Tamayo shared.
A former corrections officer, Fairbanks, had allegedly killed Condoluci and had reportedly reached out to local newspapers and TV stations using an anonymous email account titled "Stop Predators" with a message saying, "I killed Matteio Condoluci Thursday, May 14th". It was reported that Fairbanks had discovered Condoluci's past after he had looked up the local sex offenders register. He also shared that he took action after seeing Condoluci staring at children outside his home while he pretended to wash his truck.
In the email, Fairbanks continued, "Having had my own experience with these types of predators I know the damage he would do to those kids. I've worked with kids for years who have been victimized and I couldn't in good conscience allow him to do it to anyone else while I had the means to stop him." He continued, "I know in this messed-up judicial system that means I will face far more severe punishment for stopping him than he did for raping KIDS." Tamayo also confirmed that Fairbanks had sent the email. While speaking to KETV, Tamayo said, "Jim called me to tell me what had happened and that he was turning himself in. He just wanted to make clear that I would, you know, take care of the kids. He is a very loving and dedicated father."
She added how Fairbanks was "usually a man of good judgment" and had speculated that he could have been driven to kill by working with pedophiles when he had been an officer. "I could only say like that I think he reflected on his experiences working with them as just bothersome and upsetting because they are repeat offenders, we know them to be people who, you know, who repeatedly act out their intent or they act on their wishes that are to harm children." Tamayo added, "And so I think that, you know, he had mixed feelings of great sadness for the victims and frustrations certainly with those kinds of people."