[narrator] New neighbors can form a quick bond.
Thank you.
To new friends.
[narrator] And they can tear it apart just as fast.
[doorbell rings]
I actually have a favor to ask.
She started borrowing money.
I'm done with your mooching!
"I won't take care of you and your two teenage kids."
You've messed with the wrong woman!
Same to you!
It was his word against her word,
her word against his word.
[woman] Work it out between you two.
Seriously?
It was crazy. Like, I couldn't wrap my head around it.
[narrator] A family feud erupts into an all-out war.
You couldn't resolve nothing with her. That... She was crazy.
There is no negotiation.
There is no reconciliation.
[child] Hi, Daddy!
[man] This isn't over.
[woman screaming]
[car alarm blaring]
[narrator] Fresno, California.
A sunny city, surrounded by rich farmland.
[Netanyah] Fresno is located smack-dab
in the middle of California, in the San Joaquin Valley.
It's known for its produce.
[Dazhane] It's a little big city.
I just love Fresno. I do.
It's small. It's like my comfort zone.
[narrator] Inside the city is a townhouse complex
that feels like a cozy village.
[Steve] The apartments are pretty centralized.
Just kind of an average middle-class neighborhood.
It was very subtle, very quiet.
It seemed like everyone just did their own thing.
These babies are almost done.
[narrator] Alvin Dalton and Lora White
have lived here for the last year and a half.
Alvin is a career driver at a nearby hospital.
[Franz] Mr. Dalton was a hard-working,
peaceful individual
who was trying his best to make a living,
and make his way throughout Fresno County.
The flame just went out.
Let me help.
Oh. You think your good looks and charm
- will get it going? - It couldn't hurt.
He was nice and he... The way he carried himself...
He always talking positive, and he always want people
to do the right thing and stuff.
- You would've got it eventually. - Mm.
Yeah, yeah. Go on and toss the salad.
[Netanyah] Lora was a little more assertive than Alvin.
She was a really good cook, she liked to fish.
She's her own woman.
We had a good life there.
[narrator] And it seems their neighborhood is about to get even better.
- Whoo. It's a nice day out today. - Yeah.
[narrator] Single mother Danetta Henry and her kids
have just moved in next door.
Oh, look. I think our neighbors are there.
I'm going to go introduce myself.
They lived in townhouses that were right next to each other.
Mm.
I knew I moved to the right spot.
[laughs] Hi!
My name is Danetta.
Looks like we're going to be sharing a wall.
[Dazhane] She was just a high-spirited person.
She was a people person, just like I am.
Hi, I'm Lora. This is Alvin.
Nice to meet you.
That's Desmond and that's Dazhane.
[Steve] Danetta was a single mother
who was trying to raise her kids as best she could.
[Dazhane] She just was always optimistic.
She worked a lot just to make sure we had the best.
Wow.
Is that a... Is that hickory?
[Lora] Me and Al,
we were barbecuing on the patio...
...and Danetta says, "Sure smells good."
She knows ribs.
You know, if it's not too much to ask,
we've been moving all day...
Oh! Not at all.
She asked for some ribs, so I gave her some ribs
and hot links.
- [Danetta] Awesome. - There's plenty for you kids too.
[both kids] Thanks!
[narrator] This simple act of kindness
bodes well for the future.
- What a nice lady! - Yeah. Nice.
[narrator] But a happy coexistence
is never guaranteed.
I'm warning you!
Go to hell.
Thank you.
- To new friends. - And lots more wine.
[narrator] For now, it seems the new neighbors are a good fit.
[Steve] They were friendly.
They hung out together, they talked,
they spent time together.
[Dazhane] Like, they would conversate.
They used to drink together sometimes.
It was just cool.
[Danetta] I've been waiting all day for this.
[Dazhane] I would see them, like,
hanging out in the front courtyard area,
or across the way, at another neighbor's townhouse.
- Hi, Mom. - Hey, sweetie.
[Dazhane] They were just typical neighbors
and, you know, just vibing with each other and stuff.
[narrator] Then, according to Lora,
Danetta begins to cross that line
between being neighborly and being a nuisance.
Hey, uh, while I have you...
Mm-hm.
[Danetta] ...I actually have a favor to ask.
Things are a little tight this month.
She started borrowing money. $3, $5.
She was working in a nursing home,
and she borrowed $5 from me.
Um... Just, uh... pay me back, okay?
Just 'cause she a new neighbor,
she kept asking for stuff
and I was trying to help her out.
Mm. These look good.
We used to barbecue, like, once a month,
and then she kept asking for barbecue.
Oh, wow. Smells like mesquite.
Oh. Hey, girl.
I've got some for you.
No, give her the big one. The kids.
I even put a whole slab of ribs
on the grill one time and gave it to her.
Say hi to the kids for me!
That was an expensive cut of meat.
[narrator] As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.
Then she asked, could she borrow some cooking grease?
I gave it to her.
And then she asked one time, could she borrow some cornmeal?
She said she wanted to fry some fish.
She was asking for too much.
[narrator] Lora says Danetta's requests
come at all hours.
[doorbell rings]
[knocking on door] Is someone at the door?
[knocking on door]
[Lora] It's still dark outside,
like, 5:00 in the morning.
Did something happen?
No, not at all. I just need some garlic salt.
- Garlic salt? - Yeah.
You got to end this.
[Lora] Alvin told me to stop giving stuff out to the neighbors.
He said, "You feed a cat, they keep coming back."
[narrator] Lora decides she has to shut this down once and for all.
[knocking on door]
Hey, girl! Come out for a drink!
[knocking on door]
If she knocked on the door, I wouldn't even answer.
Where are you going? Come out for a drink!
I wouldn't even answer the door
'cause I knew every time she knocked on the door,
she'd be begging.
"I won't take care of you
and your two teenage kids," that's what I told her.
I'm done with your mooching.
[Danetta] What? What are you talking about?
Where are you going? [knocking on door]
[narrator] But there's another side to this story.
According to Dazhane,
it's her mother who actually decides
to end the friendship.
[Dazhane] I just know because my mom,
she did use to drink often.
She came to me one day, was saying, you know,
"I'm not going to be socializing,
I'm not going to be hanging out as much."
She just really needed to focus
because, at that time, she was trying to go back to school.
She just wanted to... Better for us.
So, she wanted to slow down a lot, and...
it seemed like as my mom became distant,
that's when Lora started to feel some type of way.
[narrator] It's impossible to know exactly what starts
to tear this friendship apart,
but the breakdown is real.
[Lora] 4:00 in the morning, she's knocking on the door.
- She did what? - Mm-hm.
[woman] Tell me more.
That's her daughter over there.
[both giggle]
[Dazhane] You could tell it was directly towards my mom.
Like, cracking jokes on her and stuff.
[both laughing]
[Dazhane] When I initially started seeing this stuff
and how she was acting towards my mother,
I was very confused.
I'm just like, "Is there something else going on or anything?"
Are you guys laughing at my mom?
[narrator] Lora has her own version of the entire story.
[Lora] Everything we did, we didn't involve the neighbors.
And I'm glad we did.
No, we were never friends.
I don't know where her daughter got that from.
She'd never been inside of my apartment.
[Dazhane] Did you and Lora get into a fight?
She's outside saying really mean things about you.
When you come to the point where you're bullying,
then, of course, that's when you kind of
go naturally into defense mode.
And that's what happened.
It was very, very, very upsetting.
[narrator] Battle lines are drawn,
and neither side is backing down.
I was going to the mailbox and she was coming from the mailbox.
And then she walked close and bumped me.
I knew right then we were going to start having fights.
[narrator] But no-one can imagine how bad
it's all going to get.
[knocking on door] You awake yet?
That's when things started escalating.
[women screaming]
I don't think anyone thought it was going to get as far as it went.
[Alvin] Did you provoke her?
She attacked me.
Lora probably was not used to people standing up to her.
Just let it go.
[Netanyah] She was a very, uh...
Let's see. A persistent person.
And she wasn't one that easily backed down.
If she felt strongly about something,
she would let you know it.
You've messed with the wrong woman!
Same to you!
You think you can embarrass me in front of my daughter?
[Netanyah] There was verbal conflict,
calling each other names, cussing each other out.
Oh, you messed with the wrong woman.
It was like some Lifetime movie stuff.
Crazy.
[knocking on wall]
[narrator] And the craziness just keeps coming.
[music playing loudly]
2:00 in the morning, Lora would put her speaker
against the wall, like, play her music really, really loud.
And with us being literally neighbors
and the walls being so thin,
you could hear it throughout the whole townhouse.
Oh, my God! What the hell?
Oh, my God.
You awake yet?
She was definitely doing it intentionally to upset us.
Is she kidding me? This time of the night?
Come out!
[Dazhane] It was crazy. Like, I couldn't wrap my head around it.
I have work in a few hours!
[Dazhane] My mom did go up there and then,
of course, that was where it just changed.
[Danetta] Don't make me come in there!
I'm warning you!
[narrator] Here's where the story gets tangled.
Lora claims it was Danetta playing the loud music.
[music playing loudly]
[Lora] She started blasting her music up,
putting it on real loud, and she would...
I'd hear her saying,
"Al, he's not going to be able to get no sleep
and he's going to lose his job."
[Danetta, through the wall] You're going to end up poor!
[Franz] My understanding was Alvin
and/or his significant other
would, on occasion, knock on the wall
and ask them to knock it off,
which only made them turn the music up louder.
So I put my music up to drown hers out.
[Danetta, through the wall] Don't make me come over there!
[narrator] Lora summons the police.
Help, my neighbor is threatening me.
[narrator] When authorities arrive,
the music has been turned off.
There was a lot of finger-pointing back and forth.
It was really hard for the police to ever get to know exactly
what had happened prior to them being called out.
Work it out between you two.
- Seriously? - Are you kidding me?
It was his word against her word,
her word against his word.
And so, really, there's not a whole lot the police can do about that.
Okay, you know what? Let's go, you guys.
I guess we're just going to have to let this one go.
Alvin is a peaceful person.
I never saw him have a fight, you know, with anyone.
You could tell he just worked and minded his business,
and really lay low and came and went.
[Lora scoffs]
[narrator] But in this neighborhood feud,
no-one's letting anything go.
Now another battle begins,
and each side claims the other started it.
What the...?
Mom!
[Danetta] What?
[Dazhane] Mom, ew!
We had went outside and we seen that she had dumped her...
it was clearly her garbage can
over to our side of the back patio.
Okay. Don't step on anything, okay?
What is going on?
- Okay, don't-- - [Lora] You want food?
Here you go!
[narrator] Lora says she only ever threw food once,
and only to get even.
[Lora] I threw food over there that one day.
When Al was at work, her and Dazhane was
throwing food on my patio.
When I call to report it, they said they're not coming back out,
so I just threw the food back over there.
That was that one day.
She threw food on my patio almost every day.
[Dazhane] It was just like a food fight.
It was very nasty. Very nasty.
[Lora] That's for you. You want some more?
-There you are. -[Danetta] You know what? Back off!
[narrator] Then, according to Dazhane,
the conflict is taken to a whole new level.
[Danetta] Stop harassing my family!
I'm sorry, what? I couldn't hear you!
-Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everyone, let's calm down! -[Lora] What did you say?
There was an allegation, at one point,
where Danetta reported that Lora had pulled out
and brandished a handgun at Danetta and her two children.
Try and touch me again! Try!
[Dazhane] She reached over and she waved a gun at us,
just like, "I'll shoot both you bitches."
I think it was a scare tactic, just to, like, bully us
and to think that she was more superior.
[Danetta] Go call the cops.
[narrator] Police arrive,
but it's the same old routine.
Ma'am, we looked everywhere. No gun in sight.
Nope.
I... I never threatened Danetta with no gun.
Police searched...
...and, yeah, they didn't find nothing.
Well, she must have hidden it!
Your neighbor says she's innocent and we can't prove otherwise.
[Steve] There wasn't evidence and Lora denied committing the act,
so there wasn't a whole lot the police department could do at that point.
- Oh, my God. - [police] Next time you call,
make sure you've got some evidence for us.
[narrator] Whether or not Lora pulled a gun
on her neighbor, a line has been crossed
between the two women, and there is no going back.
When you antagonize someone, someone that...
...means no harm, eventually they get fed up.
Leave her alone!
[Lora screaming in pain]
You better watch yourself, missy!
I was just mind-blown.
After the falling-out between the two women,
there were dozens of incidents between the two.
[narrator] In this dispute, there's no such thing
as a quiet cup of coffee on the back patio.
Okay. So...
[Lora] Danetta did this.
I just know it.
She had been on our patio while we were asleep.
She put cooking grease all on the patio glass,
and chocolate fudge, and
she put spaghetti all on my patio.
[Netanyah] The altercations were very tit-for-tat.
Very elementary, very child-like.
[Dazhane] She'd throw food over, my mom would throw it back.
[narrator] And it seems neither side
is willing to surrender.
Something happened between the two of them to sour their friendship.
They couldn't go their own ways
because they were neighbors, they lived next to each other.
So Lora and Danetta had to see each other on a daily basis.
Hey, you!
Go to hell!
[Netanyah] If the neighbors said something to her, then she'd say something back.
If the neighbor said, you know, "I'm gonna get you,"
she would say "I'm gonna get you" back. You know, things like that.
[narrator] Each side blames the other
for instigating the arguments.
You better watch yourself, missy.
[Dazhane] She would call me names.
She would call me a bitch, and insults and stuff.
"You big-nosed bitch," or, "You big-eyed bitch."
Hey, don't talk to my daughter that way!
How dare you?
[Dazhane] I would get very, very, very upset about it.
But what can I do? I'm only 14.
[narrator] Yet Lora claims just the opposite.
She says Dazhane insulted her.
Hey, look. It's the local crazy lady.
Hi, crazy lady.
[Lora] Dazhane got smart when she was with her mother.
She was trying to make her mother feel good.
[narrator] The Henrys' neighbor contends
she was just standing up for herself.
Watch yourself, missy!
Guess your mama didn't teach you any manners.
Okay, don't talk to my daughter that way!
[Dazhane] She would get upset,
but there's really nothing you could do.
If she were to go over there, they would fight. It's...
There's just nothing she could do.
I just looked at it like this: may the best man win.
Okay, just go inside.
[narrator] Trapped side by side,
the opponents continue to hurl accusations
at the other.
Then, one morning, as Alvin heads to work...
[Steve] Alvin's truck was vandalized,
and I believe Lora and Alvin
assumed that either Danetta or her children were involved.
Lora, get out here!
Oh, my God!
She, uh... put toilet paper all on our truck and...
and fudge, and syrup.
How are you supposed to get to work?
This is her!
[Lora] She scratched off the tags of the car.
And when you scratch the tags off, they don't give them to you free.
Al had to pay $35 to go to the DMV and get the tags.
The nerve of this woman!
[narrator] Once again, Lora turns to the police...
Help! My neighbor did something crazy!
[narrator] ...but they can't resolve this war.
So, wait a second.
You woke me up to accuse me of something I didn't do?
[narrator] Both sides in this struggle
feel betrayed by law enforcement.
We couldn't get no help from the police.
We've been out here a few times now.
Only call if there's an actual crime.
[narrator] After the fact, Dazhane acknowledges
she and her family were actually responsible,
but only up to a point.
I will admit this.
I can honestly say this. The only thing
that my mom and I have done to his car
was wrap it in toilet paper.
Just being petty. Wrapped it in toilet paper.
As far as the tires being popped, we did not pop any tires,
scratch any tags or anything like that. No.
But the toilet-paper thing, that is valid.
[Franz] After that, Alvin did not leave the car in the parking spot.
He would park it 3, 4, 5, 6 blocks away
just to avoid the conflict.
[narrator] And now Alvin has to bike
to where he keeps his vehicle.
[Lora] Al, he would just hold it in.
He was angry, but he don't show it.
He is willing to look beyond faults
and try to resolve conflict.
Please, leave her alone.
He said, "When you walk outside, don't say nothing to her."
Trying to keep peace.
He said, "Don't say nothing to her."
I said, "Well, only when she says something to me."
Al was a type of person, he don't argue with nobody.
He won't say nothing to nobody.
I'm the one arguing with somebody.
He won't say nothing to nobody.
If we don't fight back, she's just going to keep walking all over us!
Police, they don't do nothing.
You couldn't resolve nothing with her.
That... She was crazy.
She's only going to keep tormenting us if we give in.
I don't believe that my brother could control her.
I just was concerned about what she would do.
[Steve] There were so many different reports and...
Maybe some of them truthful, maybe some of them made up.
When we get to the mall, can we check out the game store?
I'm just happy to be getting out of crazy town for a minute.
I know.
[cell phone vibrating]
Why are the police calling me?
Give me a second.
Hello?
Wait, how can we be causing a noise disturbance?
We're not even home!
[Dazhane] It's been times that we would leave,
go on a bus somewhere, or when Mama would take us out somewhere, whatever,
my mom would find out that the police had been by.
[narrator] Lora denies ever making these kinds of calls.
[Lora] I don't know nothing about that.
Every time I called the police, they was at home.
This is a new low for her.
[Danetta scoffs]
[Netanyah] Either one of them had it
within their power to stop it.
Danetta could've stopped it too.
She just chose not to.
She wanted to continue to turn the knife
and stick the knife in, see how deep it would go.
[narrator] The allegations and accusations keep ramping up.
According to Lora, one night while walking home,
Danetta and a group of thugs block her path.
[Lora] I could tell they was part of a gang...
...just by the way they was dressing and stuff.
Yes, there was a belief that they were gangbangers.
What is this?
What do you think you're doing?
Alvin!
Alvin! Alvin!
Alvin!
I know Danetta had a dumbbell.
She had it [indistinct] like she was gonna hit me with it.
Alvin! Alvin!
Alvin!
I'm calling the cops! Get out of here!
We're talking about the Hatfields and the McCoys...
and not necessarily a lesser version.
This person is irrational.
They're not thinking clearly.
They're upset, they're angry.
There is no negotiation.
There is no reconciliation.
Alvin! Alvin!
Alvin!
I told Alvin, "Don't let her hit me
when she try to come up behind me."
And Al took it from her.
Alvin!
I'm calling the cops! Get out of here!
[Netanyah] The behavior of both of these women
is so incomprehensible to me.
I don't even understand that mindset,
to tell you the truth. I... It's beyond me.
I need your help.
[narrator] By now, police are tired of the constant calls.
They refuse to intervene.
[Lora] It didn't do no good to even call the police.
That was a... That was just a waste of time.
Well, same to you!
[narrator] Like so many of these stories,
Lora lacks hard evidence to back up her claim.
[Franz] I heard about the incident,
but we couldn't prove the incident.
Couldn't prove who the five men were
because nobody seemed to know their names,
or where they came from, or where they resided.
It was a lot of assumptions going on about my mom.
Like, my mom has all, like, these dudes
that's going to do X, Y, Z and all that.
She don't bring other people in her [bleep], so...
I really don't know what happened,
what could've happened.
I don't want to say did or didn't,
'cause I really don't know.
[narrator] The only thing certain in this feud
is that both sides believe they're the ones in the right.
[Lora] I had pepper spray and I had a butcher knife.
I said, "I'll stop calling the police
'cause it's not doing no good."
[narrator] The confrontations between the two neighbors keep getting worse.
[Lora] I pepper-sprayed Danetta over the patio...
...when she tried to hit me with some... Al was at work that day.
One day, me and Al was on the patio
and she tried to hit me with a [indistinct]. And then, another time...
Every time I walked outside, I had my...
I pepper-sprayed Danetta a whole bunch of times.
[Danetta] Go inside! Go inside!
[Lora] Sometimes, I pepper-sprayed both of them.
[Dazhane] It was definitely a strong, strong,
strong, strong spray, 'cause I smelled it.
I definitely smelled it and my nose started burning a lot.
[Danetta and Dazhane screaming]
I honestly do not know
why she was doing the stuff she was doing.
And, with me being a fair person
and looking at stuff from both sides...
...I don't see it from her side at all.
[narrator] Sometimes, even the most determined person
can suddenly reach their breaking point.
Danetta decides she's had enough.
Moving felt like the only choice.
My mom, she wanted something new also,
so she was even more eager to go.
You know, soon, we're going to be away from her.
[Steve] They had found a place to move and they were
going to be moving to get away from Lora and Alvin.
[Dazhane] My mom knew that it was not an environment
that we should be in. It was too much.
We were over it, we knew we were moving soon,
so we were really kind of, like,
washing our hands of the whole situation.
It was like, "Okay. It is what it is.
We'll be out of this situation very soon."
[narrator] But that belief proves to be dead wrong.
Six days before the Henrys move away for good,
there's another incident.
And Danetta blames her neighbor.
Lora! I know this had to be you!
[Dazhane] We were moving in six days.
Lora still kept going.
She just wouldn't stop.
She wouldn't stop. Even when we did stop, she wouldn't stop.
[narrator] Lora denies the charges
and claims it's Danetta who won't cease fire.
[Lora] Danetta threw...
Blended her food till it was like a bunch of throw-up,
then threw it all over, covered the whole security door.
It dried up and we couldn't put the key in the keyhole.
She got too comfortable with what she was doing.
She sees she wasn't going to jail,
she see the police was not going to do nothing, so she got real comfortable.
[narrator] Lora White says the assaults keep coming.
[knocking on door]
[Danetta] Wake up! [knocking on door]
Go to hell!
She woke me up that morning beating on the door,
then she just kept on beating on it.
She was talking stupid. She was just saying all kind of stuff.
She was saying, "When we move," she said,
"y'all are going to have a miserable life."
[narrator] She claims Danetta Henry
taunts her endlessly.
Going to have my friends pay Al a little visit tonight!
[Netanyah] She said that she was going to
have members of a notorious Fresno street gang...
..."take care" of Alvin.
[Lora] She said, "My homeboys coming over later.
They going to [bleep] that car and [bleep] Al up."
[Danetta] My homeboys are going to rearrange his face!
[Netanyah] And so, that is what threw him
into a different mindset, is that of fear.
[knocking on door]
[narrator] Wherever the truth lies,
Alvin decides he needs to be prepared...
...should he face a serious threat.
[Netanyah] And that's when he got the gun
and put the gun in his car.
He did not want to be defenseless
coming from his car, going into his apartment.
[narrator] There's less than a week to go
before the Henrys move away from Lora White
and Alvin Dalton.
[Dazhane] It was a normal day. My brother was in the house playing a game,
and my mom and I were walking to the store.
She was talking about grandkids and all that,
and I'm all like, "Lady, no. That's not going to happen right now. No."
Not that she wanted it right now,
it just wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
[Steve] They were walking back to the complex and,
just before they got there, they ran into Lora.
And so, the women, as they met up,
they started yelling, cursing.
[narrator] As usual, there are different accounts of what happens next.
You think you're going to come to my house...?
Get out of my face!
[Dazhane] I was just used to it.
We're just like, "Lady, go.
Like, what's your whole deal today?
Just bye. Get out of our way. Whatever."
[Lora and Danetta yelling simultaneously]
[narrator] Lora asserts that, out of the blue,
Dazhane throws a sports drink at her.
So she retaliates in self-defense.
[Dazhane and Danetta screaming]
[narrator] But Dazhane maintains that Lora attacks her and her mother
entirely unprovoked.
You! You really think you're gonna come over and threaten Alvin?
[Dazhane and Danetta screaming]
She just started spraying us.
[Dazhane and Danetta screaming]
[narrator] And the violence is just beginning.
[Steve] She then came out of her townhome
with a pot of boiling water and threw it
on Danetta, scalding her, burning her.
[Dazhane and Danetta screaming]
[Steve] She started hitting her on the head,
the upper body, hitting her with the empty pot.
And, of course, I jumped in,
tried to pull her off of my mom.
Leave her alone!
[Lora] That's when Dazhane starts kicking me in the back,
kicking me in the head and the back.
[Lora screaming in pain]
[Lora] Al grabbed her, and she tried to bite Al.
[narrator] Home from school, Desmond hears the screaming and rushes outside.
Alvin, what the hell? Do something!
[Steve] So, he comes running out to see what's going on.
He sees his mom being pummeled,
he sees his sister being thrown on the ground,
and he wants... He wants it to stop.
- Bitch, get off my mom! - Hey!
And he said, "Bitch, get off my momma."
[Steve] He wants to help his sister and his mom,
and he says, "Hey, get Lora off my mom! Stop the fight!"
And Alvin's response is, "No. Let them fight.
Let them fight."
[Netanyah] Alvin was a little bit relieved
because he's like, "Look, maybe they just need to fight
and get it out of their systems,
and we'll be done with this once and for all."
Let them handle this. Let's be fair.
- Come on! - Hey!
[Alvin] No!
My brother's trying to pull Lora off of my mom.
My brother and Alvin are trying to break all of us apart.
Alvin socks me.
[Dazhane screams]
Why the hell would you do that?
[Dazhane] And my brother looked at him,
was like, "Oh, so you hit my sister?"
That's my sister, you know!
Who do you think you are, man? Who do you think you are?
- Huh? You think you're tough? - Back up.
- Who you think you're talking to? - I'm talking to you!
- Who do you think you're talking to? - I'm talking to you!
They was all trying to jump Al - Dazhane, Desmond, and Danetta.
[Steve] Desmond took a swing at him.
That just made Alvin even more mad,
and he said something in response,
like, "Oh, you want... You want to take a swing at me?"
Lora, get in the house and call 911!
[narrator] Then Alvin makes an ill-fated decision.
He pulled out his handgun.
Everybody lost.
[scream]
He pulled out a gun and he just started aiming.
-Mom? -Back up, back up. Leave my children alone!
Hey, I said leave them alone!
Alvin fired his gun multiple times.
He... He hit Danetta.
She was shot in the head, shot in the chest,
shot in the arm, and shot in the forearm.
[Dazhane screams]
I was shot twice, in my stomach and my elbow,
and I was grazed on my butt.
I was on the ground...
I was on the ground, of course,
and then I look over and I see my mom,
and it was just... It was a lot of blood.
I gave her a kiss, told her I loved her.
[Dazhane sobbing]
[Steve] Desmond ran up on Alvin.
[gunshots, screaming]
And I believe Desmond was struck in the thigh
and got a graze wound on his knuckles.
He grabs the gun and the two of them start...
start struggling over the gun.
[Dazhane] Then I look over, I see them fighting.
I see his finger going like this on the gun, but the gun wouldn't go off.
The gun jammed, thank God.
Alvin!
And, at some point, Lora came up and took the gun from Alvin.
[narrator] The shooting and the shouting finally stop.
Terrified neighbors call 911.
Six days before she was planning to leave this place for good,
Danetta Henry dies in front of her home.
I didn't know she passed until I was lying on a stretcher
and my brother was over me.
He was crying and he tells me everything
is going to be okay,
and then it was one of the guys
that are with the ambulance,
and he was like, "We don't need a stretcher
for the other one. The other one's gone."
[narrator] Alvin Dalton is arrested
and taken into custody.
Lora White is never charged.
You know, Lora was definitely guilty of being a bad neighbor,
but...
...she didn't have the gun with her that day,
she didn't pull it out, she didn't pull the trigger. That was all on Alvin.
[narrator] At trial, Alvin's attorney argues he acted in self-defense.
This was not Alvin.
Alvin had been pushed.
What's wrong with you?
Back up!
Alvin, as far as I'm concerned,
was just a gentle giant that they woke up.
[narrator] The jury doesn't buy
that he was in danger.
They didn't believe that you should bring a gun to a fight,
especially if this fight were a food fight.
[narrator] Alvin Dalton is sentenced to 83 years to life
for second-degree murder and attempted murder.
His family is devastated.
[Netanyah] I cannot believe that my big brother,
who has spent his whole life being a law-abiding person,
a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen,
a brilliant student...
He was the first one in our family
to graduate from college.
He set the pace for all of his younger siblings.
Alvin was a really good example.
I cannot believe that he will now no longer fish,
no longer have a beer, no longer have his freedom.
It's been taken from him, just snatched.
I do not recall anyone,
any testimony about Alvin's behavior...
...that was antagonistic.
It was all Lora's behavior and Danetta's behavior.
If Lora didn't live there, there would be no conflict.
It could've been prevented if the police would've did something,
so I blame the police too.
I told Al, I said, "We made all those phone calls just for you to go to prison."
[narrator] Lora still stands by Alvin
and marries him while he's in prison.
[Lora] We got married December 4th, 2014.
[narrator] Dazhane and Desmond Henry
are raised by relatives.
Despite their terrible loss, both rebuild their lives.
[Dazhane] I run two businesses.
I'm a young entrepreneur.
I have a son - he'll be five this month.
My brother's now a truck driver.
He's married. He's a truck driver,
he has his career path and stuff,
so he's doing really, really well.
He's really happy.
I miss everything about my mom.
I just kind of take it day by day.
I go through the emotions of it.
It's a lot. It's a lot.
Losing a parent is bad enough,
but losing a parent how I did
and actually seeing it happen...
That's just something that I battle with a lot,
more than people know or think.