On March 27, 2019, 63-year-old Gary Dolce, a White/Caucasian male, was shot and killed near his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The incident was the culmination of a long-standing and escalating dispute with his next-door neighbor, James W. Hanlon. The conflict between the two men had been ongoing, with police having been called to an altercation between them more than a month prior to the fatal shooting.
The day of the murder, tensions reached a breaking point.
Just an hour before the shooting, Hanlon had been cited by authorities for having an aggressive animal, an issue related to the fence separating his and Dolce's properties. In a chilling turn of events, Dolce recorded his own murder on his cellphone. The video captured a blue SUV, a driver wearing a disposable glove pointing a handgun at Dolce, and the sound of multiple gunshots as he fell to the ground yelling, 'Oh my God!'.
Following the shooting, an active first-degree murder warrant was issued for James W. Hanlon, who was 53 years old at the time. After ditching the gun and being on the run for two days, Hanlon turned himself in to the Denver police. He was subsequently taken into custody by the Colorado Springs police.
In April 2022, an El Paso County jury convicted Hanlon on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated witness intimidation. Prosecutors argued during the trial that he had ambushed his neighbor. Following the conviction, a judge sentenced James Hanlon to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
