Billings residents near the 100 block of South 38th Street were rattled Monday morning after a shooting occurred between two neighbors in the area.
The incident happened around 10 a.m. and sent a 49-year-old man to the hospital with injuries. According to Billings police, an 82-year-old man is being questioned as a suspect, but no arrest has been made at this time. Police have not identified either man.
For residents living in the area, such as Katelynn Debus, the incident was jarring.
"You don't expect that," Debus said. "It's horrible. It's like I live in Chicago."
Debus said she didn't hear the gunshots being fired, but when she woke up and came outside, her usually quiet neighborhood was filled with police.
"There was a cop blocking this side of the road and a cop blocking that side," Debus said. "And I think there four or five police in the middle."
Debus lives directly between the house of the men involved, which is just up the street from Highland Park.
"It's scary. We have kids in the neighborhood," Debus said. "There's kids in almost all of these houses on this side of the street, and just the fact that we have a park nearby, we can't be shooting people."
According to Debus, the two men involved have had altercations before but she said the sudden jump to extreme violence was shocking.
"It doesn't matter what your background is, people need to learn how to talk about things instead of killing each other over something so minuscule," Debus said.
Police said that the suspect is cooperating with investigators, and even though the scene was picked up by about noon Monday, it still has many like Debus worried about what will happen next.
"I wonder what's going to happen now with retaliation and stuff," Debus said. "It's not comforting at all that this might open a door to a completely drastic change in my neighborhood. What the hell are we supposed to do?"
