Sheriff: Pasco man planned, then carried out neighbor's execution

HOLIDAY — A neighborhood dispute ended in gunfire when one neighbor executed another on Tuesday, deputies said, as the victim kneeled in his own front yard begging for his life.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office said the execution, which took place just after noon, was captured on video.

Deputies said Qiu Feng Ke, 60, also known as Joe Ke, shot and killed neighbor Edward Tudor, 37, outside the victim's home at 3519 Richboro Drive.

The arrest report, released Tuesday night, detailed how the 60-year-old explained to deputies how he planned and carried out the plot to kill Tudor and an unidentified woman, then take his own life.

"The defendant said he does not regret shooting the victim and has been planning on killing the victim for a long time," detectives wrote in the report.

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He even had his will notarized beforehand, the report said, in anticipation of carrying out the plot.

The dispute was two years in the making, the 60-year-old told deputies, though the report did not elaborate.

The following account is based on the Sheriff's Office's interview with the defendant and what deputies saw on the surveillance footage:

The defendant armed himself with two loaded handguns, one .22 caliber and the other 9mm. He chose to use the 9mm because he thought it had a better chance of "harming" his neighbor, deputies said. He also brought along extra magazines.

He opened the door and walked in to "surprise" Tudor.

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The victim was unarmed and holding a small dog, deputies said, when the defendant shot him once.

Tudor managed to get outside. He was kneeling on his front lawn "pleading and asking the defendant why he was doing this," deputies said.

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He cradled his upper body and held out a hand, according to the video, "as if to stop the defendant from harming him any further."

Then the defendant shot him several more times, deputies said, killing Tudor.

Tudor wasn't the only target. The defendant said he intended to kill a woman named "Jen," whom he believed was also in the home.

There was a woman there, but the defendant said it wasn't Jen. The identity of the woman in the home at the time was not released by investigators.

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The defendant told deputies he shot Tudor in the head to "end it."

"Because if he had let the victim live the dispute would have continued and the victim would have laughed at him," the report said.

Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco, at the scene earlier Tuesday, said shortly after his deputies arrived at 12:30 p.m., the defendant walked out of his home with two magazines and told deputies he was involved in the shooting.

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Neighbors walked and drove slowly by the yellow caution tape Tuesday afternoon. Patricia Tipton, who lived across the street, said she heard multiple sounds she thought were firecrackers shortly after she woke up.

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When she walked onto her porch to drink her morning coffee, she saw that sheriff's cruisers had swarmed her block.

Tipton said the defendant, whom she called "Joe," was a "nice guy." He lived alone and left three bowls of cat food on his porch to feed the neighborhood cats.

He now faces a charge of first-degree murder. He was booked into the Land O'Lakes Detention Center where he is being held without bail.

Contact TyLisa C. Johnson at tyjohnson@tampabay.com. Follow @tylisajohnson.