Man killed in dispute with neighbor

A 52-year-old Mesa man described by his longtime girlfriend as an awesome and hardworking family man was shot and killed early Thursday, police say, by his next-door neighbor after a long-standing feud.

Benny O'Neal was shot about 1 a.m. by Rodney Hoyt, 62, in the yard separating their two homes in the 2900 block of South El Paradiso, near Dobson and Guadalupe roads, during an argument involving a noisy vehicle, according to police.

O'Neal was unarmed and standing on his property when he was shot, and Hoyt was on his property when he pulled a handgun and shot O'Neal in the chest, said Detective Mike Melendez, a Mesa police spokesman.

A foreman at a roofing business, O'Neal liked working on cars and spending time with his family. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead soon after the shooting.

Rodney Hoyt

Hoyt, who was described by one neighbor as a distraught Vietnam War veteran and a "very intimidating gentleman," was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and is being held in a Maricopa County jail. There was no indication that Hoyt shot O'Neal in self-defense, Melendez said.

"I got to hold him while he died," said an emotional Karen Vinck as she wept with her son, Ricky Vinck, standing a few feet away from where O'Neal was shot. "And I told him I loved him. He was an awesome man, he was great. He was a redneck and loved life. He took life to the fullest. It's not right, It's just not right. His life ended way too soon."

Karen Vinck, who said she and another son witnessed the shooting, had just gotten home when O'Neal, her boyfriend of 10 years, had gotten out of bed to tell Hoyt to stop making noise as he was revving his truck up and down his driveway.

"When Benny told Rodney if he didn't calm down and go back inside, he'd call the cops, and that's when he shot him in the chest point blank," Vinck said. "He just did it real calm and put down the gun. Benny turned around and took three steps toward me, and fell. I gave him CPR for 14 minutes, and got him to come back once, and he opened his eyes, and I just told him I loved him. Now, the love of my life is gone. I've got a grandson inside the house asking for pa-pa, and I don't know what to tell him."

She said the pair have had several run-ins with Hoyt over noise. Police have been called to the street about a shooting before.

Melendez said O'Neal accused Hoyt of firing a gun into his backyard in October 2007 after an argument with Karen Vinck.

Police weren't able to find evidence of a gun being fired and the 62-year-old man denied shooting his gun.

Ricky Vinck of Globe said he received a phone call from his sister Thursday morning telling him that O'Neal had been shot by their neighbor.

"I had had run-ins with him before when I lived here about two years ago," he said as he began to cry. "He would start yelling and throwing things around the backyard, and I would tell him to try to be quiet. I never thought it would go this far. Benny's been a good, good guy. He helped out my family a lot."

Sue Jones, a neighbor who lived across the street from O'Neal and Hoyt, said she heard a gunshot about 12:55 a.m. after hearing an argument between the men. When she looked outside, she said she saw Karen Vinck screaming for help.

Jones described Hoyt as a "very intimidating gentleman," who sometimes would bang on people's garbage cans, telling them to get them off the street.

"Benny was a hardworking, good guy," Jones said. "They never instigated anything. They didn't deserve this."