A retired firefighter in Texas will spend a year in prison after leaving a baby doll with a noose tied around its neck in front of his black neighbors’ apartment, federal authorities announced.

Glenn Eugene Halfin, 64, of Grapevine, was sentenced Wednesday in Fort Worth after pleading guilty to interfering with the family’s housing rights — a federal hate crime — in July. Halfin admitted buying a baby doll at a Walmart in December before making a noose with a rope and tying it around the doll’s neck.

Halfin then hung the noose from a railing directly in front of a staircase that the victims used to access their residence, federal prosecutors said.

Halfin, who previously worked as an emergency medical technician and firefighter, “recognized that this display would be particularly intimidating for the African-American victims who had a young daughter,” court documents said.

A judge ordered Halfin, who remained free on bond, to report to prison in 30 days. The sentence was the maximum punishment allowable by law, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Halfin and his attorney, Brook Antonio, declined to comment following Wednesday’s proceeding, but Antonio said in court that his client acted out of “anger and frustration” after an ongoing dispute with the family.

Antonio accused the family of pouring urine and feces from their balcony onto Halfin’s porch and also regularly stomping on the floor, making excessive noise in Halfin’s apartment, which was a floor below.

“It’s not a situation where he’s a racist,” Antonio told US Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton. “This incident is not who he is.”

Antonio had sought probation for Halfin, claiming he has health issues and may not survive being incarcerated. Halfin has one prior arrest for drunken driving in the 1980s, he told Cureton.

The father of the victimized family, Dante Petty, said in a Facebook post cited by the Dallas Morning News that he began having issues with Halfin immediately after moving into the apartment in June 2017.

The friction started when Halfin threw eggs and dog feces on Petty’s car, he wrote on Facebook. Halfin, who was arrested by police in Grapevine in January, was evicted from the apartment complex later that month, according to the Dallas Morning News.

“No family should be afraid for children in their own home,” US Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said in a statement. “The Northern District of Texas will not tolerate crimes born of bigotry. Prosecuting those that persecute others based on race is a priority for my office.”