Fight over parking spot leaves 3 dead in suspected hate crime: report

A Maryland man has been hit with hate crime charges after he allegedly killed three people and wounded three more during a parking dispute, the Associated Press reported.

Charles Robert Smith, 43, faces first-degree murder and hate-crime charges in the killings of his neighbors Mario Mireles, his father Nicholas Mireles, and Christian Segovia. Smith is white, while his victims were Latino.

Police say the victims were shot while at a party when a dispute over a parking spot broke out. "Mireles went to Smith’s home to talk about it and was arguing with Shirley Smith when her son Charles Smith returned home and confronted him. The verbal argument became physical," the AP's report states.

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Smith then pulled out a gun and Mireles tried to grab it. Smith then shot Mireles and Segovia before he "stood over Mario Mireles and shot him several more times," police say.

He then went into his neighboring house and got a rifle and began shooting through a window at people who came to help the victims. He fatally shot Nicolas Mireles, and wounded Rosalina Segovia, Paul Johnnson and Enner Canales-Hernandez, the AP reported.

Smith and the Mireles family had been feuding for years, according to police. The Mireles had accused him of making racist remarks towards them, as well as other neighbors who are Black.

Read the full report over at the Associated Press.