Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
There has been a second deadly shooting in less than a month involving refugees in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A Sudanese refugee is accused of killing his neighbor, with police called 17 times this year to resolve a series of disputes between the two. An article in the Argus Leader has the story:
The fifth homicide of the year in Sioux Falls is described by friends and police as a deadly bubbling over of a long-simmering dispute between neighbors. It was marked by harassment and threats of violence and ended Sunday night in a shooting death.
A judge Monday set bond at $1 million cash for Peter Deng Mayen, 29, who is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 51-year-old Bruce Richard Walters in northeast Sioux Falls.
Police say Mayan approached his neighbor with a handgun at 8:30 p.m. at his home, 1505 E. Sage Place, and shot him at least five times. By the time officers arrived, Walters was dead on his porch from wounds to his chest. Mayen was apprehended at a friend’s house shortly after the killing.
Before Sunday night, the police had been called to resolve conflicts between them 17 times this year, and both men had accused the other of threatening to use a gun. The calls involved varying reports of noise complaints, disorderly conduct or juvenile delinquency, and both households had repeatedly asked for police intervention. On nine of those occasions, police were called to Mayen’s house. Eight of the calls were directed to a disturbance at Walters’ address…
…”(Police) would say. ‘You guys just ignore him,’ ” Aware Geu Mayen, Peter Deng’s wife, said outside the courtroom Monday. “We needed the police to be there before what happened yesterday.”
Police spokesman Sam Clemens said such advice is common in disputes between neighbors, especially when no actual violence is reported.
Peter Mayen was cited once this summer for making unreasonable noise. That was the only one of the 17 calls that resulted in a police report… Read more here
I understand that the police can’t arrest anyone until a crime is actually committed. But the two families had called police 17 times this year to help resolve conflicts involving harassment and threats of violence between the two men, with each accusing the other of threatening to use a gun. It’s illegal to threaten to kill someone. So why didn’t the police, before this deadly shooting, ever charge anyone with making terroristic threats? Most likely there would need to have been a witness to the threats for the police to press charges. Didn’t anyone witness the threats, and been willing to
testify? I don’t understand why the police would simply tell the two to ignore each other after 17 calls to the complex involving this ongoing dispute.
