Indiana man kills a house cleaner in front of her 4 children, and yet he is not behind bars

A man from Indiana, Curt Anderson, is suspected of voluntary manslaughter after a tragic shooting outside his property. He was released on a $25,000 bond, but it has opened up a conversation about the concerning trend of paranoia-induced gun violence.

A former neighbor of Anderson’s told NBC that for as long as he knew him, Anderson was always a man who lived in fear of some form of crime falling upon him. Another witness described Anderson, saying, “He was very paranoid about the world.”

On the morning of Nov. 5, Guatemalan immigrant Maria Florinda Rios Perez, 32, was headed to work in Whitestown, Ind. where she worked as a house cleaner. She was accompanied by her husband and was the primary breadwinner of her four children. Maria mistakenly walked up to the wrong house and tried to open it using her keys.

On the other side of the door, Anderson was standing atop the stairwell that led to his door. He didn’t check who it was, didn’t ask any questions. Anderson just picked up his gun and fired at the door. Maria was shot in the head and ended up dying in her husband’s arms.

Gun violence has been a persistent problem that will forever be almost impossible to fix. On one hand, there’s the element of everyone’s constitutional right to defend themselves. On the other hand, there are people like Anderson whose possession of a gun should at least be up for debate because there have been people who have shot children going to school because they’re having a bad day and others who have even shot children because they were playing ding-dong ditch.

The realities of someone being unstable are inescapable, but the idea that these people too can be trusted with guns has led to multiple tragedies that seem avoidable. On the day of the shooting, Anderson’s wife also happened to be in the house, and she was more forthcoming with the police about what happened on that Wednesday morning.

Mrs. Anderson shared with the police that neither she nor her husband actually went down to check who might be at the door. She tried but was eventually stopped by her husband, who was suspicious that the people at the door had a gun.

The affidavit revealed that Anderson then called 911 with one hand on the phone and another still on the gun. Anderson urged the police to come as quickly as possible because he claimed the intruders were still trying to get in and that he was still scared. The fact that he was granted bail means that the legal authorities do not consider him a flight risk at the very least. Which is not always the case.

Currently, Anderson has to wear a GPS tracker so that the police can know his location at all times before the case formally starts. He’s set to be back in court in Jan. for a pre-trial and then again in March for the actual trial.

There’s an uproar about his release already, but the bigger question remains whether this will keep happening if gun laws continue remaining so loose.