A man in Australia pleaded guilty on Monday to shooting two of his neighbors dead with a shotgun after getting into a heated dispute over his use of a garden hose. Rodney Lee, 73, admitted at the supreme court of Victoria to shooting Saumotu Gasio, 62, and Tibor Laszlo, 72, at their apartment complex in the Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc in January 2022. Lee developed a keen interest in gardening and decided to tend to the complex’s communal areas but annoyed neighbors by leaving a faucet running in the garden. On the day of the deadly attack, Lee found the faucet had been turned off. “If you turn off the hose again you bastards, I’ll fucking kill you,” Lee angrily shouted, according to court documents. Later that day, Lee found the faucet had been turned off again and, after speaking with Gasio in the complex’s common area, he returned with a shotgun and shot Gasio in the chest. He then followed Gasio and others into an apartment where he shot Laszlo. Lee was arrested by police after a short standoff during which he would not drop the gun and went inside to write a letter explaining his actions.
