Billy Booth, the Nebraska man who shot seven Hispanic family members before taking his own life, had previous run-ins with the family prior to the incident.
Five weeks before the shooting, the Guatemalan family told authorities that Booth had tried to initiate a fight and "flipped them off."
One of the victims, Maria Garcia Sanchez, said she had told her son, who was being harassed by Booth, to stop engaging with him.
"The guy went over to tell him 'f--- you,' and that's when my son got mad, and he said, 'What do you want? Why do you talk to me like that?'" Sanchez revealed to NBC News.
Weeks later, it was the same son who rushed to call police after he found several of his family members bleeding and wounded following Booth's shoot-out.
On May 21, the family called police to report that Booth was calling them names but said no direct threat was made, according to the police department.
The officers took statements from family members but said they were "not interested in being involved in a legal dispute."
Booth had been previously involved in altercations with several of his white neighbors, as well as the Guatemalan family.
He told his Hispanic neighbors to "go back to their country" before shooting seven of them, four of whom are children, on June 28.
Dave Hansen, who lives next door to Booth, told the news outlet he did not believe the shooting was racially motivated.
"I don't care what the police say. I lived next to that guy for 10 years, and he wasn't racist," Hansen said.
Hansaen claims Booth often antagonized residents over decreasing property values and that he was "all over anyone who didn't take care of their yard," adding that "the last seven years were hell."
Booth shot four kids, between the ages of 3 and 10, at a house across the street from his residence on June 28.
Additionally, three adults between the ages of 22 and 43 suffered gunshot wounds as Booth unleashed a hail of gunfire on his unsuspecting neighbors.
The victims all suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
