JACKSON, Ky. (AP) — A gunman enraged over how his wife cooked his eggs in rural eastern Kentucky shot five people dead with a shotgun before killing himself, a relative of two of the victims said.
Trooper Jody Sims of the Kentucky State Police said 47-year-old Stanley Neace killed five people in two mobile homes around 11:30 Saturday morning, then went to his home and turned the gun on himself.
Sims said that when state police arrived about an hour after the gunfire began, they heard a single gunshot and found Neace's body on the porch of his home in the mobile home park outside Jackson in Breathitt County. The county is home to about 16,000 people in the rugged eastern part of the state.
Sherri Anne Robinson, a relative of two of the victims, said witnesses to the shootings told her that Neace became enraged when his wife did not cook his breakfast to his liking.
Robinson said that when his wife fled to a neighbor's trailer, Neace followed and shot his wife, his stepdaughter and three witnesses. Robinson says he allowed a young girl to flee to a neighbor's home.
"He just got mad at his wife for not making his breakfast right and he shot her," said Robinson, who answered at a phone listing for Neace. "She tried to run to tell my family and he shot them too because they found out about it."
Robinson said a sister and a cousin of hers are among the victims, and the rest are her friends.
Robinson said her sister was shot in front of the woman's young daughter.
"Her daughter said, 'Please, please don't shoot me,' and he said, 'All right, you can leave,' and she ran out," Robinson said. "She went and told her neighbors, and the neighbors called the law."
She said the fifth person Neace shot was a witness who had stepped out on her porch to see what was going on.
Robinson says Neace had never appeared threatening before, but that he was known to have a history of violent crime. Trooper Jody Sims with the Kentucky State Police could not confirm that Neace had a criminal record.
Authorities started receiving calls from concerned neighbors around 11:30 in the rural unincorporated community of Mount Carmel, about 90 miles southeast of Lexington. Sims said when they arrived about an hour later, they heard a single gunshot, then found Neace's body on his porch. He used a 12-gauge during the attacks.
They found victims in two other trailers. Their names have not been released pending notification of relatives.
"Over eggs?" Robinson said. "I thought that was crazy. Really. I mean just because his eggs weren't hot?"
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Associated Press writer Chris Talbott in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.
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