A Guatemalan family who was targeted by their neighbor in Nebraska told police that the man had tried to start a fight and “flipped them off” five weeks before he shot seven people at their home last weekend.

The neighbor, Billy Booth, 74, was found dead of a self-inflected gunshot wound at the family’s home after the Friday attack, which the Nebraska State Police is investigating as a possible hate crime.

All seven, including four children, have been released from the hospital, police said.

In the earlier incident on May 21, the family called police to report that Booth was calling them names, but no direct threat was made, according to the department.

Officers took statements from family members but they were “not interested in being involved in a legal dispute,” according to the police report.

Police said Booth, who is white, had been involved in previous conflicts with several of his white neighbors, as well as the Guatemalan family.

Dave Hansen, who lives next door to Booth, said he did not believe the shooting was racially motivated.

“I don’t care what the police say, I lived next to that guy for 10 years. and he wasn’t racist,” Hansen said. “But I feel very lucky he didn’t shoot me.”

Hansen said Booth fired a shotgun at members of the Guatemalan family after some kids walked onto his property to retrieve a soccer ball.

He said Booth often antagonized residents over decreasing property value.

“Anybody who didn’t take care of their yard, he was all over you,” Hansen said. “The last seven years were hell.”

The seven victims were from the state of Huehuetenango in Guatemala and of mixed legal status to be in the U.S., according to the Guatemalan Consul General’s Office in Omaha.

At the time of the shooting, a family gathering was taking place at the home, authorities said. Two of the victims worked at the Smithfield Foods meatpacking company in Crete, the consul general’s office said.

“We are thinking of and concerned about members of our team who have been affected,” Smithfield spokesman Jim Monroe said in a statement. “We hope they will focus on family and recovery at this time.”

Police said calls concerning Booth and the family date back to 2021, most being complaints from Booth regarding “driving behavior.”

During the altercation in May, Booth told members of the Guatemalan family to “go home” or “back to where they came from” and to “speak English,” police said.

Billy Muñoz, consul general of the Guatemalan Consulate in Omaha, said his office would do what it could to help the family.

“Unfortunately, (the) consulate is taking into account that it is an election year where it’s like hate will be more frequent,” Muñoz said.

Saul Lopez, interim executive director of Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim, a nonprofit that supports Indigenous people in Nebraska, said many immigrants have had trouble adjusting to life in the state.

“Nebraska is a very difficult environment for immigrants,” he said. “It is not an ideal place where immigrants can move into. It is a very hard place because a lot of people do not like immigrants at all.”

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) – The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is teaming up with Ziplines Education to provide new “micro-credential” certificates.

The focus of the program is to help people who feel they are unprepared for the digital workforce.

As a part of the University’s land grant status, they have to make sure they are fulfilling the needs of the entire community, and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Digital and Online Learning for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Kevin N. Shriner, is excited about it.

“Primarily what we’re trying to do is fill a gap that we have, where there is 76% that feel they are unprepared for the digital workforce,” Shriner said. “And so we want to ensure that we meeting that need across the state as our land-grant mission.”

Another goal is to help the 250,000 Nebraskans who started college but did not finish. With these micro-certificates, they are able to now advance in their careers and have the same sense of accomplishment that college graduates have.

“There are currently 41 million US adults nationwide that have some college and no credit, no credential,” Shriner said. “Within Nebraska there’s 250,000 of those. So what we want to ensure is that we’re providing not only education towards degrees, but education towards improving individuals in their current work environment.”

They offer credentials in five areas, product management, business analytics, sales development, project management and digital marketing.

While these aren’t degrees, they do prove someone’s abilities in a certain skill space, which can help further someone’s career and money making potential.

If you’d like to learn more or sign up, you can do so here.

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LINCOLN — This year’s two border deployments ordered by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen cost a combined $1.27 million.

The state says it paid $1.2 million of that total using interest collected from holding the second wave of $48 million in federal pandemic relief funds that Congress set aside for rental assistance.

State taxpayers paid the remaining $71,675.23 in general funds, the Nebraska State Patrol confirmed. The Patrol and the Nebraska Military Department both sent people south.

The Examiner requested the costs of Pillen’s 2024 deployments a year after he spent nearly $1 million in pandemic-related funds and general funds on two similar deployments in 2023.

Not all are pleased with spending

Some legislators, including term-limited State Sens. Carol Blood of Bellevue and Megan Hunt of Omaha, have said those funds could have been better used on other in-state priorities.

Hunt said this spending won’t help constituents. She said it doesn’t address problems Nebraskans tell senators and the governor they want fixed, such as workforce and housing needs.

“This spending is political and partisan,” she said. “It’s misusing political power for political gain. I think Governor Pillen is hoping that Nebraskans don’t notice.”

Some support Pillen’s deployments

Pillen deployed 34 members of the Nebraska National Guard between April 1 until June 27 to help near the Texas-Mexico border in the Del Rio area — 28 from the Army Guard and six from the Air Guard.

Pillen similarly sent 10 State Patrol troopers to the El Paso area of the Texas-Mexico border from April 14-28, where they were paired with Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.

Pillen has argued that public safety and national security dictate the need for every state to send help until the federal government does more to stem the flow of migrants to the border.

Like many other GOP governors seeking to draw attention to the issue in a presidential election year, he defends the spending on border security as necessary and worthwhile. 

Questions about effectiveness

He calls “every state a border state” and speaks about the failures of the federal government. Local and national critics have described the spending as ineffective and wasteful.

Pillen dismissed such questions about the cost-effectiveness of state efforts during his three trips to the border as governor, including stops to visit the Nebraskans he sent.

He and leaders with the State Patrol have said their efforts help reduce the number of people and illegal substances being trafficked across the border.

Pillen’s predecessor, U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, also sent state employees to the Texas border as part of efforts to help his friend and fellow Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Texas has spent billions in state money on border security, arguing that border security has been a problem under both Republican and Democrat administrations. 

Congress spends nearly $20 billion on border security.

Approach draws supporters, critics

Red-state governors have found political support at home for the spending. Pillen took Speaker of the Legislature John Arch and State Sen. Tom Brewer to the border last month.

Every member of Nebraska’s all-GOP congressional delegation has said polling shows border security is a top issue for voters. It is discussed often on conservative Fox News and Newsmax.

Immigrant advocates and Latino Nebraskans argue that some of the rhetoric Pillen, Ricketts and others have used to describe migrants contributes to fear and anger against them.

One Omaha-based group, LULAC of Nebraska, has argued that the governor would rather spend money on political stunts rather than work to help people who contribute to Nebraska’s business dynamism.

Immigrant and refugee labor account for more than 8% of the state’s economic output, one study indicated. More than 60,000 undocumented workers call Nebraska home, estimates show. 

Pillen has said he will keep sending Texas help until the feds get more serious about stopping the flow of people and products across the border. No next deployment has been announced.