A routine neighborhood dispute in Cordova ended in deadly violence on May 15, 2019. Bryan Hervey, 61, who had been active in monitoring the security of his street, was shot after driving past his neighbor in the 1200 block of Linnean Cove. According to the neighbor’s sister, her brother, Bryant Ward, became upset after making eye contact with Hervey, leaned out of his car window and began firing into Hervey’s vehicle. Ward reportedly then exited his car and continued shooting as Hervey fled on foot toward a nearby home, collapsing after calling for help.

More than two dozen shell casings were recovered and a resident’s doorbell camera recorded part of the attack. Hervey managed to write down the shooter’s license plate number before he died; that lead pointed deputies to a vehicle matching the description. Several days after the shooting, Bryant Ward, then 24, was arrested. What details about the confrontation or the neighborhood might help explain how an exchange of glances escalated into this fatal shooting?