Rampage killer’s repeated weapons violations were never reported to prosecutors, district attorney says
Tehama County prosecutors were never told that the gunman who killed five people in a rampage this week had for months before regularly fired off weapons at his home despite a judge’s order that he turn in his weapons, the district attorney said Friday.
Neighbors of the gunman, Kevin Janson Neal, 44, said they complained to police for months about him firing guns and threatening them, with one resident even filing papers in court.
Tehama County Dist. Atty. Gregg Cohen said Friday that had prosecutors known about the complaints, his office could have filed a motion to increase Neal’s $160,000 bond or filed misdemeanor charges for violating the court order that barred him from having weapons.
“I wasn’t aware of the fact that he was continuing to shoot,” Cohen said. “We would need some kind of report, some kind of proof that it was happening. Just someone saying he didn’t turn in all his guns.”
Cohen did not assign blame for the communication breakdown but said that the first he had heard of the neighbors’ complaints was Wednesday, a day after Neal’s rampage.
“That is the first time,” he said. “I don’t want to throw the sheriff’s office under the bus.”
Tehama County sheriff’s officials have said they investigated the reports of gunfire but could never find Neal or catch him in the act, despite at least twice placing his trailer under surveillance.
The revelations come amid questions in the small town of Rancho Tehama about whether more could have been done about Neal’s behavior in the months before the killings.
On Tuesday, Neal took a semiautomatic rifle he’d manufactured in his garage and two pistols that were registered to someone else and killed three of his neighbors and a woman on the street in a cross-town rampage that ended with deputies shooting him to death in a gun battle.
Neal had killed his wife the night before and hid her body under the floor. After killing his neighbors on Tuesday, he drove to a nearby elementary school where one of his neighbor’s children attended and shot into several buildings.
Neal’s penchant for firing guns and threatening neighbors was well-known in this rural corner of Northern California.
In February and again in March, a local court had ordered him to turn in all of his weapons as part of a temporary restraining order granted to residents who claimed Neal was harassing them.
Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Wednesday that his department tried to deal with Neal’s gunfire.
“Our officers would go up there and investigate those cases and could not come up with one shooting or a firearm,” Johnston said in an interview Friday. “We highly suspected he was, but we needed to see it to make an application for further action against this individual.”
In the roughly one dozen shooting reports Johnston said were generated between Neal’s arrest in February and the shootings on Tuesday, none specifically cited seeing Neal with a gun. Deputies repeatedly pulled over Neal and neighbors and searched their cars for weapons, but never found any, he said.
Neal filed documents showing he had turned in a single pistol and claimed he had no more. Johnston said that was suspicious.
“We were concerned. People lie to the court and lie to police all the time,” he said.
One of the guns used in Tuesday’s massacre was registered to Neal’s wife, Barbara Glisan, Johnston said.
“The spouse is supposed to certify that they keep firearms locked away from the restrained party,” Johnston said. “There’s no authority in place to ensure that…. I think it should be reviewed legislatively and see if we can tighten it up.”
But, he said, “a criminal element always finds a way.”
“I’m very sad for our community. I honest to God wish there would be some way that we could prevent these things from happening in our country.”
Court records show that neighbors continued to complain about gunfire and other problems with Neal for much of the year. Another judge issued the same weapons order in October.
Some experts said they believe more could have been done to enforce those orders.
“I’m always a little hesitant to second-guess law enforcement, but if they received credible reports that Neal was shooting on his property … then that seems as though they would have had probably cause mandating an arrest,” said Kelly Behre, director of the Family Protection and Legal Assistance Clinic at UC Davis, in an email.
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.
ALSO
These are the victims of the Rancho Tehama shooting rampage
Why no children died during the Rancho Tehama school shooting
At Tehama vigil, tears, cheers and a reminder: ‘Please, please report everybody who shoots’
UPDATES:
8:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from the Tehama County assistant sheriff.
This article was originally published at 4:50 p.m.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
