Report: Young daughter was in backyard when man shot 2 in neighbor feud

As he was being yelled at from the next-door backyard, a pastor said his daughter had snuck outside. But instead of grabbing the young girl and defusing the dispute, Andrew Cote clutched a shotgun. 

From across the wall, Cote — who later said he’d been “in fear” before pulling the trigger — shot the man yelling at him, Timothy Darnell Hanson, 54, and killed Mildred Olivo, 71, whom he’d been feuding with for years, according to his Metro Police arrest report. 

When he saw that Hanson was still moving, he blasted him a second time in the head, police said. Then the 36-year-old suspect and his daughter went back inside, where he called 911. 

Later questioned by homicide detectives about his reason for not calling police before the shooting, Cote said “words to the effect of 'not tonight',” noting that officers hadn’t reprimanded Olivo hours earlier when she purportedly sprayed him and one of his children with a garden hose during an argument, the arrest report said.

Cote again called police less than 10 hours later to 4412 Mossy Rock Court, where he said he’d shot two people, police said. Both victims died at the scene from their head wounds, the Clark County Coroner’s Office confirmed.  

The killings ended the long-brewing animosity between Cote and Olivo. Metro Lt. Ray Spencer said Friday that one of the people involved in the dispute had obtained a temporary protective order against the other, adding that the bickering had been the source of multiple police calls over the last few years.

The arrest report notes that Cote had successfully applied for the order, which was served in April. It wasn’t clear what restrictions were placed, or for how long. Online searches through court databases have come back empty. 

The relationship between both victims wasn’t disclosed, but Cote told detectives that Hanson had arrived at Olivo’s house shortly before the shooting. 

A search through Metro dispatch logs shows that officers had responded to Olivo’s house at least seven times this year, all of which came after February and before the slayings. Information on the subjects of those calls, responses and resolutions wasn’t immediately available. 

It wasn’t clear who made either of those calls or how they were handled. On March 4, someone summoned police to 4413 Mossy Rock Court, where Olivo lived, to report a malicious destruction of property. The subsequent six reports varied between citizen assistance calls and disturbances at the same address, including Thursday’s 12:43 p.m. call about the water incident.

Multiple people in the neighborhood interviewed Friday night — and who asked that their names be withheld — spoke about the widely known riff between Olivo and Cote. They’d either heard about it from one of the two parties, had seen it, or had seen police on their street. 

A source of contention was Olivo’s bathing habits in her backyard hot tub, which prompted Cote to yell at her to wear clothes, two neighbors said. 

Olivo had told one neighbor that she expected privacy at her own property, while complaining about Cote allegedly staring at her. Cote had complained about the same situation to the second neighbor. Eventually, the man said, Cote put up a fence to provide privacy and further separate the two houses built unusually close to each other.  

One of the neighbors described Olivo as a sweet and socially friendly woman, and Cote as an amiable bilingual pastor who’d invited her to his church. 

Others said Cote, a married man with three young kids, kept to himself. Nevada records show that he registered his congregation, Faith Love Baptist Church, as a business in 2014, but that the license expired last year, and its status was “canceled.” A biography on another religious site describes him as a baptist who was “saved at the age of 9.” He was a missionary in Honduras and later ordained in 2010 before establishing his church in 2012. 

Cote appeared in court Tuesday morning and remained booked on two counts of murder at the Clark County Detention after Judge Karen Bennett-Haron denied bail, Las Vegas Justice Court records show. Cote’s attorney could not be reached for comment.