“I couldn’t see him or what he was doing – something happened and everybody just unloaded on him,” Ruane said. Then officers told the group of onlookers to “get back,” he said.

Ruane admitted to calling police on Ferry several times in the past for what he called “disturbing the peace.” He didn’t go into details, but said that Ferry was the “weird guy on the block.”

Other neighbors described Ferry as quiet and who kept to himself. Sometimes, though, he could be heard screaming inside of his home.

The day before he was shot to death, another neighbor, Diane Lynn, said that she heard him outside “ranting and raving” in the middle of the afternoon while she was planting creeping myrtle just two doors down.

“He wasn’t swearing or calling anyone’s name,” she said. “He was just ranting.”

Other than that, she said, they had never had any problems with their neighbor.

“I was surprised that there was neighbor trouble,” said her husband, Don Lynn, who would occasionally talk about gardening with Ferry.

“He’s always been nice to us,” he said. “I’m shocked to hear that he was involved in this and a victim of this.”