The man identified only as Hans-Jürgen B., “cannot deny” that he wanted to kill his neighbour, his lawyer said at Berlin district court.

“I’d rather spend ten years in jail than live with him any more,” he told policemen who questioned him afterwards, the court heard, according to the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

He is accused of attempted murder for allegedly shooting his 41-year-old neighbour Matthias S. when he came back home from walking his dog one evening in March 2012.

Hans-Jürgen B. waited for him in the staircase and shot him, following the injured man into the road. When Matthias S. flagged down a passing car and told him to drive, Hans-Jürgen B. followed, firing his pistol repeatedly at the car.

Matthias S. was seriously wounded in the lower abdomen in the attack while the driver of the car and his 16-year-old daughter who was with him, both suffered from shock.

Hans-Jürgen B. had lived for 11 years in his two-room apartment in the Lichtenberg district of Berlin before Matthias S. and his girlfriend moved in – with a large dog.

He and other tenants then reportedly complained of noise from the apartment that included barking, loud music, doors slamming, and sounds of the couple fighting, the paper reports.

At one point, Hans-Jürgen B. offered the new neighbour headphones, according to the paper. Matthias S. reportedly then turned down the bass on his stereo, but told him that he should get used to the loud music, and that he could play it until 10 p.m.

Two weeks before the shooting the two almost came to blows, after Hans-Jürgen B. complained again about the noise, the paper said.

The Local/DAPD/mbw