2 Dead, 3 Wounded in Quarrel Over a Door

An ongoing dispute over a broken screen door led to Sunday’s shooting spree in an Orange mobile home park that left two people dead and three others wounded, authorities said Monday.

Joel Stanley Martin, 66, armed with a .22-caliber rifle, broke into his neighbor’s home about 5 p.m. and shot two women, killing one, police said. Martin then shot several rounds through a bedroom window, grazing two neighbors who stood in their doorway across the street at the Santiago Creek Orange Mobile Home Park, officers said.

When police arrived at the mobile home park near Katella Avenue and the Costa Mesa Freeway, Martin shot at them before turning the weapon on himself, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Adene Bright, whose age was not given, was killed. The other woman in the mobile home, Reba Newman, 59, was in critical condition Monday at Western Medical Center-Anaheim after a bullet pierced her cheek and lodged in her shoulder.

Police said they responded Friday night to an argument Martin had with the two women. Martin was angry that his neighbors’ broken screen door was making noise when it slammed against a wall.

Neighbor Don Andersen, 65, said Martin “hollered all the time” at people from his porch, usually when he thought neighbors had too many visitors. Andersen said that when one of their sons, terminally ill with Lou Gehrig’s disease, would sit on their porch in his wheelchair, Martin would yell at him to go inside.

“He was the kind of guy who was easily set off,” Andersen said. “If it hadn’t been the screen door, it would have been something else that brought things to a head.”

Andersen said he was getting dressed for a Sunday evening church service when he heard gunfire. He said that he went to his front door and called police on a cordless phone while his wife, Sonia, stood next to him.

Bullets shattered the glass in the front door and flew into the couple’s home. Andersen said that his left arm was grazed and that another bullet skimmed his wife’s shoulder. They were treated at a hospital and released Monday.

Relatives of Newman and Bright declined to comment Monday as they cleaned the mobile home. Outside stood a pickup, its windows shot out.