'He Was All About His Kids': Friend Remembers Jesse Sullivan Who Was Killed In Modesto Murder-Suicide Following Neighbor Dispute
MODESTO (CBS13) — A Modesto community is trying to understand what turned one neighbor against another, leading to a murder-suicide that shut down an entire neighborhood Sunday night.
"I knew Jesse for just over a year but it felt like I've known him my whole life," said Tracy Burkhart, who lives in the area.
Burkhart remembers his friend Michael "Jesse" Sullivan, 31, as a guy with a big heart.
"He was all about his kids and loved his family a lot," Burkhart said. "There wasn't a day we spent together that he wasn't talking about what he wanted to do with his kids."
He loved riding his Harley and hanging out with friends, including the family next door.
"This lady and her kids, they would go over here," Burkhart said. "Jesse would help take care of them. Literally, they would come hang out with his two little girls."
Sullivan's family said a dispute over registration tags on a car he bought from that neighbor turned deadly.
According to Modesto police, Daniel Riggs, 40, shot and killed Sullivan, then barricaded himself inside his home with a woman and two children. The entire neighborhood went on lockdown as crisis negotiators tried to get him to turn himself in peacefully.
"The people around over here that were on the corner, houses that have [Ring cameras], they were watching it. They were watching it on their Ring. The whole thing transpired live," Burkhart said.
The standoff lasted nine hours with crisis negotiators and SWAT officers at the scene.
"They were communicating with the suspect, and it ended when we heard a gunshot and learned he had shot himself," said Sharon Bear, a spokesperson with the Modesto Police Department.
The woman and children inside the home with Riggs were not injured. Sullivan's wife and children were not home at the time.
"We're just grateful that the kids inside that house didn't get hurt and nobody over here did," Burkhart said.
This was a fatal argument that affected everyone.
"We see stuff on TV and it's far away, and now, all of a sudden, it's creeping up on us," another neighbor said. "And now with me, it's just a few blocks away."