Neighbor Upset About Loudness of Fireworks Celebration Allegedly Opens Fire, Kills 3

CLEVELAND – A neighbor apparently angry about fireworks at a noisy Fourth of July party shot three people to death early Thursday and wounded two others, police said.

Terrance Hough Jr., a 35-year-old off-duty firefighter, was arrested in connection with the shootings, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said.

No charges had been filed Thursday morning because police were still gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses, Stacho said. There was no phone listing for Hough's address.

Police had received a number of complaints in recent years about loud parties, fireworks and drag racing connected to the house where the victims were shot, Stacho said. Some complaint calls came from Hough's address, but no one called police about the party Thursday night.

The neighbors were throwing a party when two men and a woman, all in their 20s, were shot to death shortly after midnight, Stacho said. He said another man was shot in the elbow and a woman was wounded in the hand.

A police officer who lives nearby heard the shooting and arrested Hough, Stacho said. He said a handgun believed to have been used in the shootings was among a dozen guns found at the home.

The area of neat ranch homes overlooking the industrial Cuyahoga River valley is popular among firefighters and police officers who are required to live in the city.

Near Seattle, another man was shot during an argument at a fireworks celebration and died after aid workers trying to help him felt threatened by a hostile crowd, authorities said.

More than 100 people were present when the two men began arguing around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in a parking lot in Skyway, an unincorporated area between Seattle and Renton, Wash. Paramedics called after the shooting found the crowd so threatening, they had to quickly take the wounded man out to continue CPR, said David Nelson, a spokesman for county Fire District 20.

Sheriff's Detective Bob L. Conner said it was unclear whether moving the man before continuing CPR was a factor in his death. King County sheriff's deputies were searching for the suspect.