Northern California Landlord Charged With Shooting Tenant

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By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Northern California landlord has been charged with trying to kill a tenant in the third such violent incident between renters and property owners in recent weeks in a region mired in an affordable housing crisis.

The Alameda County district attorney's office charged Herman Levi Little, 75, with attempted murder last week for allegedly shooting Timothy Loving, 39, in the Berkeley apartment building where they lived.

Neither police nor prosecutors would discuss a possible motive.

Little shot Loving three times on June 13, police said.

Loving's friend, Dottie Moore, said Loving recently missed several rent payments because of health reasons. But she says Loving told her the landlord said he was satisfied with a payment plan the two had worked out.

He lived in the apartment for five years and appeared to be on good terms with Little, she said.

"We don't know why he shot Timothy," said Moore, who said she visited him in the hospital Wednesday where he is expected to recover from his injuries.

Police recovered multiple guns and a homemade silencer from Little's apartment, court records showed.

A judge ordered Little to hire a private attorney by Friday after ruling that he didn't qualify for a public defender. Little is not yet represented by an attorney, court records show.

The shooting occurred in the college town of Berkeley, where affordable housing is especially scarce. But the entire region is suffering from a housing crunch, prompting public protests, tenant lawsuits and landlord evictions.

On at least two occasions, an apparent rent dispute led to deadly violence.

In San Francisco, a 47-year woman was charged earlier this month with killing and dismembering a roommate who wouldn't move out of her home. Lisa Gonzales, 47, has pleaded not guilty to killing her 61-year-old tenant who was paying $400 a month for a room in a neighborhood where rents for a two-bedroom apartment average $4,000 a month.

Wow! Thanks for posting. Hadn't heard of any of these. All goes back to lack of training and lack of personal responsibility or control.

Landlording can be a very emotional business. People lie and steal from you without remorse. But no matter how angry you are you don't get to shoot your tenants - unless they are trying to physically hurt you.

Defense training isn't about how to shoot. Anyone can shoot. Armed defense is about self control and emotion management in adverse situations. That avoids armed OFFENSE (murder). Anyone who can't control their emotions has no business with a gun. As these immature idiots are learning.

Always be very careful around evictions. People can flip out without warning. And personally in todays era I would never rent a room in my home. Those often become trouble.

Little shot Loving. Are those real names?

Yikes!

Puts a new meaning on "Zero Tolerance"!

Seriously, the LL ALLOWED this res to fall behind, in a market where he could have re-rented quickly for more money. He was probably very frustrated. Back when I used to allow folks to fall behind with promised of catching uup, my frustration was mostly aimed at ME for being so silly as to allow this.

The article mentions they both lived in the same building. Just because a "friend" says there was an agreed payment plan does not mean the res made any payments...which would lead to MORE frustration.

I cannot imagine a mature person flying of the handle unless he was drunk or had mental issues, or both.

If they cannot pay I don't hate them. Nobody likes to make the big life decisions. I need to convince them thru eviction to find a place they CAN afford. NOW.

Now in Los Angeles, a private citizen in no longer allowed to own non-lethal ammunition. So when a group of gang members was breaking into unit by unit of one of my buildings, I had to set aside my Shot-Gun Rubber Balls, Shot-Gun Pepper Spray and Shot-Gun bean bags. Instead I loaded my shot gun with Shot and/or Slugs to cut them down!

If you want to call for help, and dial 911 via a cell phone, it may take around 5 minutes to get connected to an operator and then 45 minutes to 3 hours for a response. But when a gang member calls saying, "Hey the landlord is shooting back", then to protect the illegal gang banger's, the response time is cut in half.....