TULSA, Okla.: When an Oklahoma man befriended his Lebanese neighbors, his husband lashed out at the family, hurling epithets and at one point allegedly running over the mother with a car.
The conflict went on for years until Aug. 12, when, authorities say, Stanley Majors shot and killed Khalid Jabara, whom his husband had come to think of as a kind of apprentice.
“He killed my best friend,” Stephen Schmauss, 76, lamented.
Schmauss told the Associated Press that he took Jabara, 37, under his wing after the family arrived in the south Tulsa neighborhood. Schmauss said he trained Khalid to use power tools and to take apart computer circuitry when he came over on some afternoons.
His husband was never so welcoming. He repeatedly referred to the Jabara family as “filthy Lebanese,” “dirty Arabs” and “Moo-slems.” They are actually Christian.
Majors, 61, “was never what you would call a friendly neighbor,” said Khalid’s brother, Rami Jabara. Majors was verbally abusive and sent abusive letters and email.
Khalid Jabara’s mother, Haifa, said Majors would also insult the lawn crews she hired, some of whom were black or Hispanic.
Schmauss tried to explain away Majors’ comments: His husband, he said, is “textbook bipolar” and a diabetic who refuses to take any medication.
The abuse between the neighbors escalated to the point where Haifa Jabara obtained a protective order in 2013 that required Majors to stay 300 yards away and prohibited him from possessing any firearms until 2018.
Despite the court order, Majors was accused of plowing his car into Haifa Jabara last September. She suffered a broken shoulder and other injuries. Officers reported Majors was intoxicated.
While awaiting trial on assault and battery charges, a judge freed Majors from jail on $60,000 bond, overruling strong objections by Tulsa County prosecutors, who called him “a substantial risk to the public” and pleaded with the court to set a higher bond of $300,000.
Schmauss said his husband started Aug. 12 on a violent note, smacking him in the eye and pounding his wrist.
Before Schmauss fled to a motel, he watched as Majors emptied at least five rounds from a gun inside the couple’s home.
Hours later, Khalid Jabara was found mortally wounded on his doorstep.