Hedge altercation ends with shooting, police say
A landscaping dispute on a quiet Anaheim Hills street turned violent Sunday afternoon when a 65-year-old woman shot her neighbor in the shoulder and then barricaded herself in her house before surrendering, authorities said.
Police said the argument began about 3 p.m. when Anita Spriggs apparently started trimming a hedge she shares with her next-door neighbor, 64-year-old Gary Hall.
“Spriggs then grabbed a handgun and shot the victim in the shoulder,” said Sgt. Rick Martinez of the Anaheim Police Department. “We’re not sure where she got the gun.”
“Neighborhood disputes are not unusual,” Martinez said. “But for it to elevate to this, especially on a quiet Sunday afternoon in a quiet neighborhood, is rare.”
Hall was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with non-life-threatening injuries. Hall’s wife, Raylene, said Sunday’s altercation was not the first her husband had had with Spriggs.
“This has happened many, many times before,” she said.
Raylene Hall said Monday morning that her husband was still in the hospital.
“The bullet went through his shoulder and shattered it,” she said.
After the shooting, Spriggs went back into her house. About a dozen officers blocked off the street and evacuated neighbors on East Greensboro Lane. During the next 90 minutes, police tried with a bullhorn and by phone to persuade Spriggs to come out.
She surrendered just before a SWAT team arrived.
Spriggs was booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder.
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