Shocking video shows Pennsylvania couple arguing with neighbor before murder-suicide sparked by snow shoveling
A Pennsylvania couple killed during an argument over shoveling snow appeared to threaten and shout insults at their neighbor, even as he aimed a handgun at them and opened fire, according to video viewed by the Daily News.
The double murder-suicide unfolded on the icy streets of a quiet community north of Wilkes-Barre Monday morning, while most East Coast residents were digging themselves out after the weekend’s major snow storm.
Plains Township police officers responded just before 9 a.m. to a report of shots fired in a residential neighborhood, where they discovered 50-year-old James Goy and his 48-year-old wife, Lisa Goy, lying dead in the road outside of their home, according to a joint statement by Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis and Plains Township Police Chief Dale Binker.
In video from a surveillance camera perched above the home, the married couple can be seen in a heated exchange with James Spaide, who lived in the house across the street. The 47-year-old neighbor can be heard muttering that the Goys are “scummy” before he appears in the frame, sparking an immediate reaction from the pair.
“This is bull s---,” Lisa shouts.
“You can go f--- yourself,” her husband adds.
Neighbors told investigators that Spaide and the Goys had long been engaged in a feud that finally boiled over amid the snowiest time of the year. Plains Township, located about 15 miles southwest of Scranton, had been covered in 2 feet of snow when the fatal confrontation unfolded, officials said.
“The Goys were shoveling the snow from their parking spots, shoveling the snow across the road, and throwing the snow onto Spaide’s property,” Salavantis and Binker said in their statement.
In the clip, James Goy appears to approach Spaide with a raised fist, both of them hurling expletives and calling each other names throughout the exchange. It prompts Spaide to race inside his home while his neighbors continue to shout.
Lisa Goy at one point returns to her shoveling, but stops again to call Spaide “scum” in the seconds before he returns with a handgun.
“Go ahead,” she urges her armed neighbor. “Go ahead.”
The group continues to shout until Spaide opens fire on the couple, striking them both several times. He then returns inside his home and appears with another weapon, which he uses to shoot the Goys several more times.
Authorities later found Spaide inside his house, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Salavantis on Tuesday said after reviewing the case she has decided to recommend the investigation be closed.
