Two friends from H.S. murdered

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With the lift of eviction bans on July 31st, a married couple I've known since we were about ages 13-15 were shot and killed yesterday (August 2nd) while serving an eviction notice. There is still relief available if the tenant can prove substantial loss of income due to the pandemic, I'm not sure why he felt he had no alternative but to murder them in cold blood.

The husband was 54, the wife 52. They had gone together to serve the notice and were shot outside the residence. When the police arrived, the tenant barricaded himself inside the residence for 4 hours and set fire to the place.

Everywhere, landlords are being demonized for needing the rent. The moratorium on eviction has been on since March of last year for those who needed it. It's now August 2021, that's roughly 18 mos without having to come up with rent. I think that's pretty generous. Everyone has a job, their job just happened to be as landlords. The bank isn't holding up their mortgages on the properties, it stands to reason that rent must resume. None of us can expect to live anywhere free if we are adults.

When I found out, I felt that chemical rush ( I guess it's adrenaline ) of fear. Not because it involved death, people die in an untimely fashion all the time. It was the nature of their deaths. This woman came for sleepovers when we were younger. They have a daughter who has no one now, she's not a child anymore but still relatively young. I'm just in shock. And I know that this will begin to happen, more and more.

It's a tricky situation always round for landlords and tenants. People facing eviction for a situation they didn't cause is immoral, but murdering landlords is a totally unacceptable reaction to that. Things need to get back to as normal as possible as soon as possible. Unfortunately there are people who are deliberately going out of their way to make sure that doesn't happen . I say deliberately because unless they are incredibly stupid the effect of their behaviour is plain to see. Yet they carry on regardless with their thoroughly selfish behaviour.

I hope the daughter can get all the support she needs to get through this awful situation.

I second Firemonkey’s words.

Sorry for your loss.

I’m so sorry for you and the family.My sincere condolences.
That is what I was afraid of when I evicted my tenants.Especially since I suspected meth use.I tried to get deputies to go with me but they won’t since it’s a civil matter and not a criminal matter till someone gets murdered.

That's just horrible. I hope you'll be able to deal with this properly emotionally. Same for the daughter of the victims. Is there some kind of affordable service that can help with the emotional burden during crisis like these? Even if you don't need such a thing, the victims' daughter most likely will.

I read about the ending of the eviction ban and I did wonder if things would get violent, but I didn't put all that much thought in to it. Guess it should be a given that something like that would happen in the USA. Let's just hope it doesn't become common.

Personally, I think that the states should partially make up for the eviction ban to the land lords by offering some protection to them when they go to give an eviction notice, at least if the tenant has a violence crime record or has been acting threateningly.

Thanks for the responses...

I was reading more about it last night. The state it happened in is Kentucky, it looks like there are different sorts of relief that can still be applied for. An example might be a partial payment of rent, with the relief picking up the rest. Or documentation of substantial economic impact ( I think I may have said that part already ). My point is that it didn't have to end in murder.

The couple needed the money to pay the mortgages on the rental properties. And that's about it. What else could they do but try and get a paying tenant? Now, a bunch of tenants are going to be out of a place to live because the daughter will sell, if she has any sense. It's not about me, of course. But, when things like this happen it's hard not to say, "gosh, I'm really glad I don't rely on the integrity of others to make ends meet." Some have zero qualms with living in a place an not making an effort to even fill out the forms to get relief. Forms... he wasn't even willing to do the footwork for the relief. Instead, he shot them.

He's off the street now. And the world is minus two really generous people who helped many small businesses in Richmond, Ky., get off the ground.

That's awful! I'm very sorry for your loss.

I don't know what to say.

I don’t know what to say either. What a tragedy. I am sorry for your loss and wish comfort to the daughter and families of the victims.

Wow, that's just horrible.

Speechless.

I'm so sorry.

Crazy. Wouldn't guess it'd be such a high risk thing to do - probably usually isn't.

I would have to disagree with that notion. By not paying rent they cause their eviction. Typically, rent is an agreement, a contract between two parties. If one party feels entitled to breaking the conditions of the agreement, why should the other party be still held to the terms of the agreement?

In most instances, the landlord also has financial responsibilities to fulfill (ex. to a bank), and must act in ways that fulfill those responsibilities, such as finding paying tenants.

The incident this thread is about is infuriating. Get killed for not letting someone live on your property for free.

Yeah... that's why repos are hired for this. Risky situations. This is why banks don't do it themselves but hire outside contractors.

People who can't pay are usually desperate, and desperate people make bad decisions.

Context; you truncated all of it:



He's saying that people unable to pay their rent didn't cause their loss of source of funds with which to pay. These financial issues stem from a global pandemic, compounded by uncooperative people who refuse to assist in public health efforts to end the pandemic via vaccination induced herd immunity so everyone can get back to work fully and have the funds with which to fulfill their contractual obligations to pay for things.

Nowhere did he say the tenant "felt entitled," to break the conditions of their agreement. He simply acknowledged that due to reasons beyond their control, many tenants across the USA and the entire world, have had their incomes disrupted for a solid year and a half or so now and that's why they Can't make good on their agreements to pay.

Yeah, I guess that's even more important in parts of the world without common sense gun control laws. People here do own guns, but legal gun owners tend to be extremely well behaved with them. We hired a professional Bailiff to collect nearly $16K from a commercial tenant last week, and the guy did roll in wearing a bullet proof vest.. but we didn't contract him over concerns for life safety. It was primarily for legal reasons - crossing T's and dotting I's, ensuring that everything was done in accordance with the law vs. the building owner or myself making any mistakes in phrases or actions that could be contested in court. We'd prefer perfectly clean actions to avoid wasting time and money telling this guy to get stuffed in court. The secondary reason was to avoid any physical conflict - this deadbeat is Not worth an assault charge. I'd never strike him first, but if he started a physical altercation with me I'd gladly end the fight - BUT - he's simply not worth a potential assault charge should he complain that my self defence was stronger than it physically needed to be. That said, if he assaults me while hand delivering further letters and notices, I will defend myself - I just won't do anything unnecessary because I have a way brighter future to protect vs. throw it away on smashing some failed tenant/business person.