Elderly Man Gleeful After Killing Roommate
This Week’s Wacky Wednesday: Elderly Man Gleeful After Killing Roommate
No one likes a bad roommate, but most people have had that experience at some point. Some roommates are loud, disrespectful, and do not clean up after themselves. They try to get others to do it for them even though they are adults and should be responsible for their own housekeeping. However, as much as people might dislike their roommates, they don’t kill them. At least they aren’t supposed to.
A Horrible Outcome
Kenneth Barnes, 52, owned a home in Ozark, Missouri, and was roommates with 88-year-old Larry Shaw. The two were roommates in the home, and it appears as though there was quite a bit of animosity between the two.
Shaw woke up one morning and started his normal routine. He had breakfast and took his medication, just as he always did. A short time later, Barnes called Shaw and told the elderly man that he would be finishing up Shaw’s laundry before he would be going upstairs. Shaw said that Barnes then told him to do chores around the house. It seems as though Shaw did not want to do any of those chores, though, and he grew angry with his roommate.
He knew that Barnes kept a handgun tucked away between the cushions of a recliner, which is one of the worst and most dangerous places to keep a gun. Shaw took the gun and then went upstairs and waited for Barnes to arrive and come up. It was a little over three hours later that Barnes finally walked up the steps and into the living room.
When he did, Shaw fired a shot directly into Barnes’s chest. The shot didn’t kill Barnes right away. He fled the home to get help. Shaw remained sitting in his chair until Barnes’s daughter ran out of the house to help her father. She started to give him CPR, but it didn’t make a difference.
Shaw said that when Barnes was outside, he wanted to go outside and shoot Barnes in the head to make sure he was dead. When emergency medical services arrived, they said that they found Shaw holding a gun and mumbling about shooting and killing Barnes.
Why Did Shaw Kill Barnes?
Police arrived shortly thereafter and took Shaw into custody to question him about what happened. Shaw said that he did not like the way Barnes treated him and claimed that Barnes would use vulgar language and call him names. He didn’t want to have to do the chores that Barnes was requesting.
The detectives asked him whether he was afraid of Barnes and was in fear for his life. Shaw, however, did not seem to have any remorse. He said that no, he was not scared and was “kind of tickled” to have shot him. He went on to say that “I hope I get the chance to piss on his grave.”
Shaw was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action for murdering Shaw.
So, what happened here, really? We know that there was a horrendous murder that shouldn’t have happened. However, it’s hard to know what the situation was really like between the two and what went on when others weren’t around. Was Shaw being abused? Did he have mental issues? Was Shaw the aggressor and just didn’t like being told what to do by his younger roommate?
Conflict and humans are forever tied. If we are around one another and living with one another, we’re bound to have problems. Most people can find ways to work things out and try to get along. However, others can only devolve into violence.