[NYPost] The crazed gunman who went on a shooting spree in Northern California, killing four people before being shot dead, had been out on bail for stabbing a neighbor — but told his mother a day earlier that he was done feuding with his rural community, according to reports.
“Mom, it’s all over now,” Kevin Janson Neal’s mother said he told her in their final conversation. “I have done everything I could do and I am fighting against everyone who lives in this area.”
The following day, he donned a ballistic vest, grabbed a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns and went on a 45-minute rampage across Rancho Tehama Reserve.
He killed two of his neighbors, stole their truck and drove around as he randomly picked off his targets in seven locations en route to the Rancho Tehama Elementary School.
Neal tried to enter the school, but couldn’t get in as he unleashed 30 rounds before taking off. No teachers or students were killed.
“He did shoot at a number of classrooms which resulted in the injury of at least one or two students that I’m aware of,” the sheriff said.
A short time later, a patrol car rammed Neal’s vehicle before officers opened fire and killed him.
By then, the 43-year-old had left four people dead and 10 injured, including a 6-year-old boy hit inside the school, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said Neal’s motive appeared to be to exact revenge on his neighbors.
“And when it got that far, (he) went on a rampage … He was driving up and down the street shooting at passersby,” he said.
One of the fatalities was a woman who lived near the gunman and was the victim of an assault in January that ended with Neal in the slammer, the paper reported.
Neal’s mother, who would only give her first name, Annie, said her son told her he grabbed a steak knife out of his neighbor’s hand while being threatened. The neighbor was slightly cut, she said Neal told her.
The mother, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she raised Neal, said she posted his $160,000 bail and spent $10,000 on a lawyer after he was arrested in January.
Johnston said he believed Neal was slapped with a restraining order after the January arrest that would have prevented him from owning firearms, at least temporarily.
In April, the District Attorney’s Office charged him with assaulting a second person, also in late January, according to Tehama County court records.
Tehama DA Gregg Cohen told the Bee that his office was prosecuting Neal on charges related to a stabbing and assault with a deadly weapon involving two of his neighbors.
Police had also visited Neal’s house a day before the shootings on a domestic violence call, authorities said, but gave no details.
Neal’s mother said her son was working as a pot farmer and had recently married his longtime girlfriend.
In her last few conversations with her son, Annie said he sounded desperate and distraught over his relationship with his neighbors, who he said were cooking meth that created fumes that were harming his nine dogs.
Neal’s sister, Sheridan Orr, said she had not talked to her brother in months, but that he had struggled with mental illness and at times had a violent temper.
She said she believed he was addicted to drugs.
“We’re stunned and we’re appalled that this is a person who has no business with firearms whatsoever,” Orr said. “Our deep, deep sympathy for the victims and it sounds trite but our hearts are breaking for them.”
Orr added, “If we can do any good to make people realize there must be some gates on people like this from getting guns,” she paused. “This is the same story we’re hearing more and more.”
Cristal Caravez, who lives across a ravine from the road where Neal and his first victims lived, said she and others heard constant gunfire but couldn’t say for sure it was him firing.
She and her father, who is president of the homeowners association, said neighbors would complain to the sheriff’s department, which referred the complaints back to the homeowners association.
“The sheriff wouldn’t do anything about it,” Juan Caravez said. 
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