Police: Shooting Suspect, Victim Fought For Months

SIOUX FALLS, SD - Police say it started as an argument between neighbors and escalated to murder.

Gunfire rang out on the 1500 block of East Sage place, just south of Rice Street around 8:30 Sunday night.

Peter Mayen, 29, is charged with murder. Police say he and the victim, 51-year-old Bruce Walters were neighbors and that bad blood had been brewing for months. Officers had been called there before.

"There were allegations by both the victim and the suspect that the other was threatening them with a weapon. So this has been going on for some time," Sioux Falls Police Public Information Officer Sam Clemens said. 

In the past, they'd only exchanged words. That changed Sunday night, when police say Mayen walked up Walters' driveway and opened fire.

"What was said, what was not said I guess, that's kind of up in the air," Clemens said.

Clemens says Walters tried to run into his home, but Mayen shot again, five rounds in all. Now, investigators are looking through the evidence.

"One of the big key parts in this case is the victim actually had some surveillance cameras set up outside his house. And part of, most of the incident, I should say, was captured on camera," Clemens said.

Walters' wife was home at the time and was one of many to place a 911 call. Police found Mayen at a friend's home, just a short distance away.

"It just sounds like these two would just start going at it anytime they'd see each other. There was always some talk between them. What happened yesterday, we've got the suspect's point of view, but we don't actually know what happened yesterday," Clemens said. 

But police are doing what they can to find out.

Police say Mayen had just taken his three elementary-school age children to the nearby friend's home before the incident happened.