TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Neighbors of the man whose accused of killing the University of Arizona professor said they’ve felt threatened by Murad Dervish for more than a year.
Roommates Haley Bender and Emily lived right next door to Dervish with windows and bedroom doors facing his house. Emily asked KGUN9 not to use her last name because of safety concerns.
Dervish was evicted from his home at the end of Sept., according to court documents.
“I'm relieved he's not my neighbor anymore. Like, I'm really thankful about that, but it just sucks that this is the circumstances that it had to be,” said Emily.
“The first thing he said to both me and my other roommate-- first thing ever in different times was ‘you won't last long here," said Bender.
The roommates said they felt unsafe and afraid of living next to him.
“He had been coming out of his house, watching me from his door in my bedroom, and then coming out late at night and knocking on my bedroom door,” said Bender. Her door opened to the outside, facing Dervish’s house.
On Feb. 17, the roommates called 911 after they said Dervish was aggressive towards them. They said he was upset about where their friends had parked outside.
“The night before, our front door had closed a little bit too loudly for his liking and he came onto our porch and banged on the door and confronted Emily, my roommate. The next morning, he came out again and started yelling about our friends being parked out front saying that they had to move. We said that they will and he kept yelling at us. Eventually, it just turned into a screaming match,” Bender said.
“He jumps up onto the curb that we have separating our houses and he just starts saying, ‘don't test me, don't effing test me,’ while he's walking towards us,” said Emily.
A couple of months later, the roommates said UArizona police knocked on their door.
“They started telling me that he has made threats, made threats to a professor or professors, I'm not sure,” said Emily.
The two continued to have issues with Dervish.
“He like tried to fight me one night. It was the same night that he called me like an ‘R’ word ‘B’ word,” Emily said.
“It’s a relief that he's just gone. But it's really hard to know that someone died before anything was done about this man and that a family lost someone really important to them,” said Bender.
Related article: UA Murder suspect: Contacts describe rage and anger
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Faith Abercrombie is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before coming to KGUN, Faith worked as a videographer for the Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation and as a reporter and producer on the youth suicide documentary, "Life is..." on Arizona PBS.
Share your story ideas with Faith by emailing faith.abercrombie@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
