A 49-year-old Long Beach man was sentenced last week to 32 years in state prison for fatally shooting another man in an apartment complex during what prosecutors said was a “psychotic episode” in Long Beach in 2021.
Peter Andrew Hairston, on Jan. 15, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, court records show. He was sentenced following the plea.
Hairston was arrested on Feb. 18, 2021, two days after police said he shot and killed 31-year-old Dwight Neals inside Neals’ apartment in the 600 block of Olive Avenue in the city’s East Village neighborhood.
Neals died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to a medical examiner’s report.
Two days after the shooting, officers were asked to check on him after he had been banging on the front doors of homes in the 1000 block of Gaviota Avenue around 2:40 a.m., police said.
By that time, investigators had already named Hairston a suspect in Neals’ killing. Police said evidence found at the scene linked Hairston to the shooting.
Police said Hairston and Neals knew each other and lived in the same area, but specifics about their relationship and what may have triggered the psychotic episode, if anything, were not disclosed.
Officers were called to Neals’ apartment after a roommate had returned home and found him inside.