In Oklahoma – A 41-year-old man named M. Stevens has been charged with several crimes after shooting two neighbors over an argument about land clearing activities near his property. The shooting caused a lot of trouble in a small Oklahoma town. One person was seriously hurt in this fight, and it has raised serious worries about property disputes turning violent.
On the afternoon of September 13, police officers went to a call about gunfire, according to affidavits and police reports. When they got there, they saw a man with two gunshot wounds in his lower back, which meant he had been shot while running away. Both of the men who were hurt and the man who wasn’t hurt were hired by their property owner to clear trees and brush from a newly bought five-acre plot of land next to Stevens’ property.
People who were there and police bodycam video showed a tense scene where Stevens was identified as the gunman by a neighbor and was seen handing himself into police. Reports said Stevens looked like he was drunk, and he was arrested right away.
During his arrest, Stevens talked to the police without being asked and told them that he was mad because of the noise and activity from land clearing next to his property. Stevens became angry when he heard chainsaws, so he went up to the neighbors and talked to them. After a short argument in which one neighbor reportedly “gave him an attitude,” Stevens went back to his house, got an AR-15-style rifle, and started shooting. He hit one of the neighbors and the car they were driving. Later, bullet holes were found in this car, and the man who was hurt crashed it into a tree because of his injuries.
In addition, the document says that Stevens went home after the shooting and told his wife over the phone that he had shot the workers because he didn’t like the land-clearing work. Among Stevens’s major charges are two counts of shooting with intent to kill and three counts of having a gun while being a felon. These new charges are worse because he has been in trouble with the law before, including pleading guilty to DUI in 2016 and being banned from having guns.
Stevens has said that he is not guilty of all claims. A lot of people are interested in his case, both because of how serious the charges are and because of what they could mean for land ownership rights and how property disputes are handled. People in the area are shocked by this act of violence over what many see as a small disagreement. The victims were hired by the landowner to do nothing more than clear the land. Instead, they found themselves in a dangerous situation that shows how misunderstandings can turn into major crimes.
The seriously hurt person was rushed to the hospital and has been getting care for gunshot wounds and the emotional trauma caused by the event. Both his recovery and the legal process to deal with the crimes he committed are still ongoing. The court date is coming up on December 13, and the community and families concerned are waiting for justice. They hope that this will end the dispute peacefully so that it doesn’t happen again. At the same time, police and lawyers are looking closely at the facts of the case to make sure that everything is taken into account in what looks like it will be a difficult trial because of how the shooting happened.
