STOCKTON –

A 53-year-old Stockton man is free tonight after shooting and killing a neighbor.

Although they had only been there about a week, the residents of the home at 440 Flora Street in Stockton, and the man who was shot and killed in specific, were well known to the people in that neighborhood.

“There was a man standing out in front throwing his hands up into the air screaming vulgarities,” said Maria Pottratz.

Another neighbor who didn’t want to be identified by name saw something similar.

“I said to him ‘you seem so nice. You’re only going to draw trouble if you stand out here,'” she said.

And that man did get a belly full of trouble.

Police say a 53-year-old man shot him in stomach just before 11 Saturday morning, telling officer he’d done it because he feared for his life.

“One motive we are looking at right now is possible self-defense,” said Officer Joe Silva of the Stockton Police.

The gunshot wound was fatal.

Neighbors say that the home where the deceased man lived was well known to be a type of halfway house for recovering addicts and the mentally ill. FOX40 could find no city, county, state or federal license for the address. And one resident told us they’d never seen any kind of license either.

But that’s totally legal. Thanks to a 1995 United States Supreme Court ruling, recovering addicts and the mentally ill are considered a protect class under fair housing rules.

And homes that cater to those people are croppnig-up in lots of neighborhoods. Landlords,  particularly in economically depressed areas, who can’t find renters for their homes are sometimes attracted to the regularity and security of rent collected from tenants who get government disability checks.

Gary and Maria Pottratz, who once lived at 440 Flora Street, say it’s a mentality they’re all too  familiar with.

“Not caring … just give me your money,” Gary Pottratz described.