Article Courtesy of The
Treasure Coast Newspapers
By Olivia McKelvey
Published December 8, 2022
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STUART — A retired couple was shot and killed Saturday afternoon at the Cedar
Pointe Condominiums off East Ocean Boulevard by one of their neighbors after a
homeowners association dispute turned deadly, police said Sunday.
Hugh Hootman, 75,
is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in
the deaths of Henry and Ginger Wallace, both 81. Police say
he shot both of them in the chest just outside their
apartment.
"We got the call at 3:18 p.m. and we happened to be very
close to that apartment," Martin County Sheriff William
Snyder told TCPalm. "We had several SWAT team members there
because they were getting ready to go out to the Hobe Sound
parade for security."
A homeowners association dispute was the apparent motive in
the shooting, Synder said.
"Ginger was the president of that HOA of that building,"
Snyder said. "And it does appear to us from witness
statements that the shooter and Ginger had some disagreement
over HOA issues. I don't know what those were, though."
The couple had also gotten in an argument
with Hootman just days before the shooting, Snyder added.
Henry Wallace was found with keys in his hand, Snyder said,
adding that the couple was found on the sidewalk "not far
from their front door" and could have been heading
toward nearby mailboxes. |
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One person is in custody after they shot two people
to death late afternoonSaturday at the CedarPointe Condominiums off
East Ocean Boulevard.
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When deputies arrived, neighbors told them that Hootman was in his upstairs
apartment.
"Less than 20 minutes after arrival, he then walked out of the apartment and
surrendered," Snyder said.
The shooting was a shock for nearby neighbor Joanne Ryder, a snowbird from
New York who moved to Cedar Pointe earlier this year.
"I saw her around 3 p.m. that day," Ryder recalled. She said the Wallaces
were from New Jersey. "I had a tool of hers and I was walking across the
parking lot to give it to her. She came out of the house and she was all
bubbly and very happy."
Ryder then left to run some Christmas shopping errands and came home to
multiple police cars outside, crime scene tape covering the Wallaces'
unit and other neighbors congregating outside.
"I had a lot of respect for the woman. She had to deal with a lot as the
president," Ryder said. "She was only doing her job, and in the short amount
of time that I knew her, she was so helpful to me."
The condo board was going to host a tree lighting and barbecue Saturday
evening, but that never happened, according to Ryder. Just the night before,
Ginger went Christmas caroling, she added. And the day before the shooting,
Ryder saw the Wallaces happily tanning at the pool.
Henry Wallace was quiet, and loved to ride his bicycle around the condo
complex, Ryder said.
"This is a retirement community ... you don't expect something like this to
happen. It's a real tragedy," Ryder said. "Now (police) have to notify the
family that both parents were killed before Christmas. That's horrible."
Hootman was being held Sunday at the Martin County Jail without bail.
The shooting comes four years after a fire tore through the roof of one of
the 10-unit condominiums. That building in the 55-plus community was left
uninhabitable after the Memorial Day blaze, but was being reconstructed in
2019.
The slaying of the Wallaces was the third shooting that happened in Martin
County on Saturday, Snyder said.
Ri'ahj Lee Thomas, 20, of Fort Pierce shot a man in the leg around 10 a.m.
Saturday at the Indian Run Apartments off Southeast Indian Street, police
said. Thomas fled the scene and police said Sunday they are looking for
him.
The other shooting occurred around midnight Saturday in the 3800 block of
Northwest Windemere Drive in Jensen Beach.
A 14-year-old boy accidentally shot his friend, another teenager, with a
revolver. The teen was treated for his injuries and discharged from the
hospital, according to Stuart Police Lt. Michael Gerwan. No charges are
being pressed, he added.
"It is unusual to have that many shootings here, but they weren't related,"
Snyder said. "They were outliers. This does not indicate a widespread threat
to our community."
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