1 killed, 1 wounded at Ky. homeowners meeting

Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky.

A Louisville man who was having zoning trouble over the fence around his house shot and killed a neighbor and critically injured another at a homeowners association meeting inside a church, police said Friday.

Mahmoud Yousef Hindi, 55, is scheduled to be arraigned this morning on charges of murder, assault and seven counts of wanton endangerment in the Thursday evening shooting.

What specifically sparked the shooting wasn’t clear. Hindi, though, had a history of disputes with the homeowners group that revolved around a fence that the association said didn’t meet its height or design requirements and a recently installed driveway in his yard, said Louisville Police Lt. Barry Wilkerson. Last year, he sent a threatening letter about the dispute to an attorney.

The fence at the center of the dispute no longer was up at the house Friday.

Wilkerson wouldn’t say if Hindi confessed after his arrest but that “he did give us an account of what happened.”

Slain was 73-year-old David Merritt, the one-time president of the homeowners association who was shot once in the head and died at the scene, said Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Jo-Ann Farmer.