A dispute between neighbors turned deadly after a man pulled out a gun and fatally shot the other at point blank range in a dispute over a shared water valve.
Surveillance footage shows two couples in Escazú, Costa Rica, launching into a heated argument which took a dramatic turn.
Video from the incident that occurred on Monday shows the couples yelling across their adjoining properties at the Río Palma condominium complex, before the confrontation spills over into the front yard.
One of the neighbors, Otoniel Orozco Mendoza, escalated the verbal altercation into a physical one, throwing punches at his neighbor Eduardo Ramírez Zamora.
In retaliation, Zamora pulled out his gun and opened fire on Mendoza, firing at least nine shots at point-blank range and killing him instantly.
A neighborly dispute in Costa Rica turned deadly after a man pulled out a gun and fatally shot the other man point blank.
The video from the incident shows the couples yelling across their adjoining properties, before the confrontation spills over into the front yard
The wife of the victim is seen screaming and running as the shots were fired as Zamora’s wife tried pulling him back to stop her husband from continuing to fire his gun as they ran from the scene.
First responders pronounced Mendoza dead at the property.
The dispute began over a shared water valve according to La Prensa.
Zamora was arrested after the incident and will spend three months in preventive detention.
Relatives of the deceased declared to Costa Rican media that there had been conflicts between Zamora and Mendoza for a long time.
‘Before this man committed that atrocity, my sister had already reported him on many occasions and the authorities never did anything,’ Dayli Avendaño, sister-in-law of the deceased, reported to media outlet CR Hoy.
Pictured: Otoniel Orozco Mendoza, 53, died after being shot point-blank nine times by neighbor Eduardo Ramírez Zamora
Pictured: Eduardo Ramírez Zamora, who fatally shot Mendoza
Orozco’s sister-in-law told that the aggressor spied on them every day to verbally fight with the now-deceased and claims he even harassed Nicaraguan’s children.
On the other hand, Zamora’s father said the fights between these two neighbors began months ago without specifying how many months ago and said that the conflict began due to renovations in Mendoza’s house and that on the day of the incident, Mendoza’s attacked Zamora’s wife. Zamora said he acted in self-defense.
Mendoza, 53, was a businessman originally from Nicaragua and worked in private security. He is survived by his wife, his daughter, and his son.