During a barbecue held in the family's contested garden, Solaine Thornton, the 11-year-old girl, was allegedly ambushed by Dirk Raats, a 70-year-old individual. The devastating rampage resulted in her father, Adrian, aged 52, falling into a coma, while her mother, Rachel, aged 49, suffered gunshot wounds to her back and head.
From New York Post:
The murder and attempted murder suspect told officials he had not meant to shoot Solaine during the attack, which came after Raats had engaged in a four-year campaign to stop the family from clearing the overgrown garden that they inherited when they bought the property.
“It’s so horrible what happened. I don’t understand it,” he reportedly said during a Monday court appearance.
Prosecutors said that Raats “clearly targeted” Adrian and Rachel, shooting them from less than 30 feet away.
“It would seem that he was not aiming at the little girl,” who was sitting on a swing when she was shot dead, prosecutor Camille Miansoni said.
Rachel had told friends that Raat had drawn a gun on the couple several years ago in connection with the family’s garden work. Aiden had reportedly been working on the hedge between the two properties in the hours before the rampage.
Raats and his wife were upset that the Brits’ gardening had left them “opened up to scrutiny from outside,” prosecutors said, the outlet reported.
The dispute began when the family cut down a large oak tree whose branches hung over the Raats’ property. The couple tried to sue the Thorntons for damages but lost the case.
It's truly unfathomable that this unfortunate family is enduring such immense pain and terror simply due to a disagreement involving a few bushes and a tree.
To resort to pulling a gun on someone over a gardening dispute is an act that can only be described as psychotic. And to escalate it further by attempting murder? It is clear that this individual must be incarcerated for life, given the severity of his actions.
