BARVIEW —The last time Bryan Hockema heard from his neighbor Kevin Nelson was on a voice message left Friday night. The next day Hockema was at home when a teenage boy burst in around 5 p.m. to say that Nelson had been shot.

Hockema, a 29-year-old commercial fisherman, ran down Grand Road, yelling at kids standing around to get indoors. He says he was worried that there was a gun somewhere and someone else might get shot. He got to the end of the road where he found Nelson. The 52-year-old’s half-brother Nickolas Crooks was performing CPR outside his motor home, though Hockema said Nelson was already gone.

“Senseless, f------ stupid,” he said Monday morning between puffs on a cigarette in his parents’ living room.

Hockema had spent many nights at his parents’ house playing poker with the two men over the past three or four months. One night, the brothers got into an argument and Nelson bloodied Crooks’ face, Hockema said. Everyone calmed down and played another hour of cards that night, but something about Crooks changed, Hockema said. He didn’t come around as often, and when he did, he was carrying a handgun.

“I think the fist fight at my house was the start of something,” Hockema said.

Police arrested Crooks on Saturday on a charge of murder with a firearm. Judge Michael Gillespie arraigned him Monday afternoon in Coos County Circuit Court. If convicted, Crooks would face a minimum sentence of 25 years and a maximum of life in prison.

Crooks had little to say in court, noting only that he has some income from Social Security disability payments.

The 59-year-old has previously been convicted in Coos County for possession of a controlled substance and felon in possession of a firearm, according to an Oregon Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Aside from the poker games, Hockema didn’t spend much time with Nelson or Crooks. He said Nelson had dropped out of high school years ago, but recently had been studying horticulture, getting straight A’s.

The two men’s family members declined to comment about the shooting and none appeared in court Monday. Gillespie assigned a public defender, Ron Cox, to handle Crooks’ case and scheduled another hearing for Monday at 8:30 a.m.