Florida police say a man shot and killed his neighbors over a dispute about a basketball hoop, and the entire interaction was caught on surveillance video.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said in the arrest report that 63-year-old Norman Scott confronted his neighbors on May 4 and then shot them both at about 5:30 p.m. The victims were identified as Tara Marie Jones and Taylor Glenn Jones.
The altercation unfolded outside of the Jones’ home on Galleria Street in the Black Diamond residential development in Wellington.
‘There’s a lot more to this case than we all know now.’
A witness told investigators that Scott admitted guilt to him after he asked the man whether he had heard anything.
“Don’t worry, I shot them both,” Scott allegedly told the witness.
Scott called 911 to report the shooting and claim that he shot in self-defense. He also allegedly told another witness that he had been attacked first.
Police, however, said that a surveillance video from Jones’ camera showed one of the victims raising his hands in the air and backing away before Scott shot him three or four times. He then allegedly shot the woman and fired two more shots into the first victim as he walked away.
Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives said that “at no point during this encounter” was Taylor Jones acting in a threatening way toward Scott. They were able to recover expended cartridge cases from a 9mm gun near their bodies, and they found the gun inside of Scott’s home on a table.
Scott was charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm. He is being held without bond at the Palm Beach County jail.
Scott’s attorney, Brian Pakett, told WPTV-TV that he was a church-going man who worked as a mechanic.
“There are two people who are deceased,” Pakett added. “It’s extremely tragic. What I can tell you is, there’s a lot more to this case than we all know now.”
A friend of the victims told WPTV they had recently moved to Florida from the west coast. A GoFundMe account has been set up for the benefit of their four surviving children and has raised over $158k.
WPTV also reported that Scott had no previous criminal history.
Wellington is a village with a population of about 61,000 people located just west of West Palm Beach.
Here’s a news report about the incident:
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