A Nebraska man shot seven people in what may have been a racially-motivated attack. The Nebraska State Patrol said that 74-year-old Billy Booth opened fire on his neighbors with a shotgun while they were having a party at their home in Crete on Friday (June 28) afternoon.
There were about 15 people in the family's yard when Booth allegedly started shooting at them from inside his home.
Four children and three adults were wounded in the shooting. They are all expected to survive. Four of the victims have since been released from the hospital.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found Booth dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Officials said that Booth did not get along with his neighbors and filed several police reports. His neighbors, who are immigrants from Guatemala, filed one police report as well following an altercation with Booth.
"Not necessarily associated with the victims' house, but cars driving too fast in the neighborhood, improper parking, nuisance properties, quality-of-life type issues," Crete Police Chief Gary Young Jr. said. "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,' to 'Speak English.'"
Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for the shooting and have not ruled out it was racially motivated.
"There could be, we don't know," Young said. "Certainly, the context of 'Go home' and 'Speak English' lends itself to that."