Two People Fatally Shot Over HOA Issues

Two Florida homeowners were fatally shot over HOA issues, reported a woman in released a 911 call.

In the call, a woman told dispatchers her husband, Hugh Hootman, had just shot people. “My husband just shot two people and I believe he killed them,” Hootman’s wife told 911 dispatchers.

Detectives said Hootman’s victims were his downstairs neighbors, Ginger and Henry Wallance, both 81.

Hootman’s wife informed the dispatcher that there had been an ongoing dispute between the couples.

“There’s been an ongoing dispute,” she said in the 911 call. “The neighbor downstairs, just the other day, shouted at me and swore at me regarding the washer and dryer.”

Sheriff William Snyder told WPTV that Ginger Wallace, the homeowners association president for their building in the Cedar Pointe community, and her husband, Henry Wallace, had confronted the Hootmans at their upstairs apartment days before the shooting.

According to an arrest report, the Hootmans left a community laundry door open. Henry Wallace allegedly cursed and yelled at Hootman’s wife, making her very upset, WPTV reported.

“The suspect’s wife said that the male victim was unkind to her,” Snyder said. “She wouldn’t be specific. He was unkind, sounds like he might have been abrasive. But she doesn’t articulate a really strong case for offensive language.”

Hootman confronted Henry Wallace near the mailboxes and demanded he apologize to his wife for how he spoke to her, Snyder told the news station.

The sheriff said Henry Wallace ignored Hootman and tried to walk past him. Snyder said Hootman then reached into his pocket and pulled out a handgun and shot Wallace in the chest area.

A neighbor Kathy Barger said she was outside getting her Christmas wreath when she heard Ginger Wallace scream as she opened her door and realized her husband had been shot.

“I heard her yell, ‘Oh, no, no.’ And then she screamed, and then she was silent. That’ll stay with me all my days,” Barger said.

The Wallaces’ neighbor Raymond Boze heard the shots and opened the door to see a shocked mailman calling 911.

“His body was lying right here, and she was lying there like a baby, curled up, and he (the mailman) was standing there, and I said, ‘Are you calling 911?’ and he said, ‘Yeah,'” Boze said.

Hootman went upstairs to tell his wife, said deputies  “Call the police, I just shot Henry and Ginger.”

A panting Susan Hootman called the police and explained her husband had unloaded the gun and left it outside, and was now sitting silently in his recliner.

“He’s in shock, too,” she said.

Hootman was taken away by the SWAT team.

Detectives say he said, “So sorry. I wish I could take it back.”