Worried Neighbor Leads Cops To Man's Terrifying Secret

"Hey, Doran. Too over? Uh, yeah." "What's your hands up doing now? Both hands!" This is 76-year-old Wayne Mahar. Police were called to his trailer after a neighbor reported gunfire only to find a man dead outside his property. "Is there a pulse?" "No." "You came up to me and I'm sure I don't understand." Wayne is claiming that he acted in self-defense, but his recounting of the events raises concerns to the detectives. "How long have you wanted to kill this guy?" "Want." "You're ready to be a bad guy, sit outside, you can't get it, do you own, so he's dead." "Okay, are you getting it?" But despite all the evidence pointing at him, Wayne would not face any charges and walk free, because someone was hiding a truth that changed everything. On October 4th, in the afternoon, police were called to a trailer park in Blaine, Washington after reports of gunfire. They arrived quickly, heavily armed, but unaware they were approaching the home of a former officer. "Let's move up to this house, do you want to go?" "Come to me. Come to me. I stay over here." "Are they outside?" "I think I'm in that house." "Okay." "And on the side, I can just go over there." "Two over?" "Yeah." "Okay." "And watch if there's a guy lying on the ground." "Right here." "13 various. He's right there." "Put your hands up. Do it now. Both hands." "Yes, he's right there." "No. He's on the ground on the other side of this. Get these guys here. Do not move." "Okay." "Okay." "Okay, stop right there. Turn around." "Sir, I want you to put your hands up real quick so I'm going to stop right there, okay?" "Yeah." "Okay. Appreciate that. Appreciate that. Do you know?" "No." "Do it." "Two, seven, three. Walk him. Send aid in. Seen secure. "Okay." "We'll get to that, sir." As officers cautiously approach and detain Wayne, others detain his wife, Sandra Mahog. Omar, who will later provide crucial information about what led to the shooting. But for now, officers focus on the victim lying on the grass, checking for signs of life. "Here. There you go." "Sir." "Sir, you okay?" "Can you hear me?" "Can you hear me, sir?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Can you hear me, sir?" "Yeah." "Can you hear me, sir?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Victim. "Suspect. Suspect." "Suspects." "So." "Do you suspect?" "Well." "Why did you just go home?" "Yeah, she just got home." "My thing has been shooting." "Is there a bolt?" "No." "It was here." As the officers performed CPR on the unidentified victim while waiting for medics, it soon became clear. It was already too late to save him. With the scene secured and the victim confirmed dead, police sit wane down for an interview. He claimed he was attacked first, but his refusal to give clear details made it seem as if he was holding something back. "Listen, there for just a moment, okay?" "Okay. We'll figure out what we have to offer now. Okay, Wayne? Yeah. Just for two minutes, right? How do you see? "See ya. He attacked us." "Okay." "We'll get to all that. Just want you to relax for a minute, okay?" "He came through the house and he didn't feel like I was going so shot. He's attacked us more than one. I was really sad. So I got my 12 gauge, which is very beautiful. "Okay." "It's a 1912, it's a piece of work, you can look down the barrel and it's a beautiful shotgun." "Was he saying anything to you today?" "Yeah, he was attacking us, he was going to do this, he was going to do that." "Can you recall specifically what he was going to do?" "Yeah, he was just attacking us, basically." "Okay." Wayne doesn't seem to grasp the weight of his actions. He praises the shotgun he used to kill his neighbor, showing a clear disconnect between the gravity of the situation and his own perception. These don't realize it yet, but this detachment will ultimately lead to Wayne walking free. For now though, officers continue their attempt at getting more details, only to get more shocking answers. "Wayne, is he ever physically attacked you?" "Yes." "When?" "On several occasions, he was just, yeah, we're going to get you, yeah, we're going to get you." "Did that be like a verbal attack, did he ever physically put his hands on you?" "Yes, I'm really attacked." "Okay." "Just threatening, yeah." "Yeah, I don't want it going." "Okay." "I don't want him." "Why, why don't you stand?" "Oh, it's just our tape to keep you from walking around here." "Oh, I'm sorry, you've got your guys out." "But, what we do, it's okay." "Where, where were you standing when you shot?" "I was right here." "Oh, don't shift off." "Oh, just right here." "Okay." "It's right here." "Okay." "He was over here. He's coming up. He's going to bring a little shit." "Gotcha." "All right, honey. That's my wife." "Yeah. Sandy." "Yeah, Sandy. That's Sandy. That way is all these guys here." "Well, because what happened, it takes a few people to investigate." "Oh, you're going to walk from the house and come on." "Okay." "I can't just right now." "Because detectives are in charge, and they tell me when it was okay to go inside." "Okay." As Wayne struggled to answer questions, his shifting stories and inability to explain how his neighbor posed an immediate threat cast furthered out on his claim of self-defense and raised the possibility that the shooting wasn't intentional. But Wayne's behavior didn't come across as malicious or deceptive, and to officers, something wasn't adding up. That's when he would mention something very interesting. "Tell me. I'll tell you what. Fifty years ago, I was a police officer." "Okay, where are?" "From America's Georgia." "America's Georgia? Okay." "Yeah. Okay." "Back in those days." "Hold it. Hold it a little more. It's been a while. It's been. God, it's been a long time." Wayne says that he once served as a police officer and fought in the Vietnam War as a U.S. Air Force soldier. At first, it seems like a minor detail, but this background and the impact it had on him would prove crucial in understanding the events that unfolded. Back at the scene, the victim was soon identified as 66-year-old Vincent Reims, who lived alone in the trailer park. With no one in Vince's household to question, officers instead turned to Wayne's wife, Sandra, hoping she could provide new insight into what could have happened. And it was through her account, along with what they would later learn about the deceased victim that the possibility of self-defense was reconsidered. "So just kind of give me a rundown of what happened here this afternoon." "I came home just as all everybody showed up and the neighbor lady's daughter said she saw her gunshot and I saw him over there and my husband told me that he came up on the deck and threatened him." "And this is Vincent that came up on the deck, didn't say what Vincent said to him." "They're going to kill him and stuff." "He's been doing that for the last about how many years?" "Okay. So what's the beef between Vincent and Wayne?" "He, Wayne stands up to him if he doesn't like that, because he wants him to go away." "Okay." "And then this guy that was here, Matt, rough, and almost guy, he came up to the door one day and asked if he had guns and I said, I don't know why, he goes because he's threatening to kill you and your husband and anybody around here." "Any idea what prompted Vincent to come up on the porch today, okay, has he done that before?" "He's been all, yeah, he was up there one day throwing a five o'clock in the morning throwing rocks off of it." "And then did Wayne say where he was standing at when he shot?" "He was there, he came, Vincent's up on the deck yelling about he was going to do something to him." "He came out and he said he shot them." "All right, well. " "He, I've told everybody, he has PTSD, he's had a stroke, he's had two seizures and I think he has another stroke and all he's been doing lately is talking about his past when he was a police officer in Georgia and all the stuff he did back then." With Sandra's statement, the case became far more open-ended than it first appeared. She explained that Wayne struggled with PTSD, which can cause someone to misinterpret danger and overreact. But she also claimed that Vincent had threatened to kill both of them and showed a pattern of hostility towards them for years, in which case Wayne's use of self-defense might have been justified. Still, there were serious inconsistencies. Sandra claimed Vincent was standing on Wayne's porch when the shot was fired, but his body was actually found beside the house. Had he been on the porch, it could've looked like he was threatening Wayne, supporting a claim of self-defense. But being further away, suggested he posed no immediate danger, making it appear more like a deliberate killing. Wayne was then transported to the police station for a formal interrogation to hopefully clear everything up and finally learn the truth behind what had happened. And it was there that officers would begin to piece everything together, realizing they had overlooked the most important detail of the case. One that would make Wayne look guilty at first, but lead him to somehow walking free. This business with that guy I killed, he asked for it. Okay, and we're talking about Vincent today. Vincent, I'm sorry, but he just attacked me several times. Okay, you guys should, I'll tell you what, you guys should have a volume of him. Yeah, we do. We do as a matter of fact, this is part of it right here, so I've been having a meeting up on that. He's attacked us for a long time. And this was the last straw. I'm sorry, but I'm no, I'm not sorry. Well, at least, what happened, what happened about what time did everything get going today? Well, he was attacking, just making sure that he was making sure that he could do something about my car or whatever, and he just keeps on keeping on. But I don't, I don't understand that. Can you explain that a little bit to me today? What that seems? He keeps irritating us, me and my wife, me and Sandra. Today, what you said today is the straw that broke the camel's back, but I'm happy today. I'm not very clear about it, so, okay, I'm just, I'm telling you the truth, I just, I don't feel very good. You know, I say prayer every day. I feel just spiritual. Okay, okay. As the detective tries to establish a timeline of events, Wayne's answers are vague, off topic and at times disconnected, making it unclear whether he's deliberately avoiding the truth or if something else is a play. Either way, it was only the beginning of an interrogation that would grow more complicated with every statement. As your wife had some run-ins with this guy too, or yes, or yes, very so. Well, if you guys look back on stuff that he's done, you'll find out that there's a whole bunch of stuff that he's done to us. Okay, when he attacked you, how did he attack you? Sir, I'm just, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and he's going, he's, there's my, my column there that I built myself, the column he's on, the column, he's dice a push, push it over. You know, I'm, I'm a very nice guy, you know. You guys would hang out with me with, with like a car, a telecaster. As Wayne casually shifted from describing the attack to blankly staring at the officers while drumming his fingers on the table, it became clear he wasn't just being evasive, his behavior pointed to possible cognitive issues. These issues would slowly become even more apparent as the interrogation went on, with his composure ultimately breaking and his demeanor turning aggressive. But for the moment, just as things were beginning to look bad for Wayne, he would make a claim that directed serious allegations towards Vincent, allegations that could tip the scales in Wayne's favor. Is he drunk today? I'm not sure. Okay, he looks like he's got some alcohol issues, that's why I asked. He isn't picked, that is what it is, he's, he's put that in our house too. Okay, we felt it, you know, yeah, he has these, he has these girls, you know, dark, dark girls, he brings them into his house, the guy is a pervert. Okay, okay, we got that straight, yep. Do you have a category of what's going on? Yeah, did you ever see what he is? I have, yeah, he's got all kinds of contacts. I mean, yeah, there you go. Look at this, it's, yeah, there is a, he's what do you like? There's a piece of work. There it is, he's got two pages. Yeah, two pages of arrests, there's only conduct that he needs. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. 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How long have you felt this way? What? What? He's from our car. Yeah. What do you think? Quite a while. Yeah, what if I did what if I did that to you? No, that depends. You'd be pissed, weren't you? Absolutely. Yeah. It's harassed us, harassed me and my wife and you guys. You make it be the bad guy? No, man. I think you do the bad guy Wayne, just want to understand, we both want to understand why you did it today and not in the past. You had it, you made a comment to a neighbor today. You told a neighbor today what happened. Do you remember that talking to a neighbor? Yeah, a neighbor over here. It's sad, but they asked you what happened or why you shot him and you said, well, he's an asshole. Do you remember that? Well, you attacked me. I know, but we're still trying to figure out where exactly you actually did or he did to attack you. How did you feel threatened? Because he was threatening me. But what did he say? What did he say? Let's pretend. Okay. Let's pretend we've got a ring camera that's one of your relatives that are I'm sorry, when your neighbors may have that we can we can access and look at. What would we see? What would we hear? He was on the attack. Okay. He's going to show me how bad he is. Is that what he said? Yeah. Okay. With those statements, Wayne only incriminated himself further, offering nothing that supported his claim of self-defense in one last attempt to break through. Detectives pushed him harder and what followed made it clear they weren't just dealing with a suspect, but with a feeling mind. How do you how do you want this to? What do you want to happen after all this? You think there should be any accountability? Imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Maybelline New York. Delta mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Maybelline New York. Maybe it's Maybelline. Your actions tonight? My accountability? Yeah. Got any shot of him? Yeah. No, I feel bad about it. I don't have any children lately lately. So we move pretty much. But I want to understand Wayne, I really want to understand. I really want you to explain your first one of your group. I kid. I was probably not as good. Yep, I'm tired. I'm 77. I mean 77 come out. And I'm the guy that can still, that's why I'm duking out. I'm sure I'm something you. Well, let me ask you the same. You bring up a good plan. Why not just duke it out with this guy. What? Is this going to beat him up? Yeah. No, I don't know. I don't know. You'll attack? No, no, no, I know. You've got to do. But why not? Why don't you use attack? And you want to just, you know, I shouldn't just beat him up. Yeah. No, because he was attacking me. It just don't beat it up. He was attacking me. You know, if you don't fucking get it, do your own. I don't. Or you, Come on he was attacking me. Okay. He was gonna go from my car. Go. Go. Go. Okay. He's gonna he's on the attack Yeah, the guy got shot. Yeah. He's dead. Okay. Are you get it? I get it. All right God what you guys think or what You've been sitting there talking about. Oh, what about us? You are or am a badass right? Well, she's badass. I see it So man, I see it. Come on. Come on. Sit outside. You know. You can handle yourself. Yeah, I'm a badass. We're gonna do for me in jail some more With that the interrogation ended later examinations confirms that in addition to PTSD and a history of strokes Wayne also suffered from dementia a condition that explained both his confusion and aggression Forensic analysis showed that Vincent had been shot from about 30 feet away Consistent with his body being found beside his own house This suggested Wayne fired from his porch while Vincent was still outside For years Vincent had reportedly bullied Wayne creating a constant source of conflict between the two men Combined with Wayne's background in the military and law enforcement where he had been trained to react quickly to potential threats His cognitive decline caused him to respond as if Vincent was an immediate danger Believing he was under serious threat. He went back inside grabbed his shotgun and fired It wasn't driven by malice in his mind He didn't fully grasp the wrongfulness of his actions in the end Wayne was declared unfit for trial sent for treatment and ultimately released under supervision