MAD RIVER TWP. — Michael Ferryman fired a shotgun into a neighbor’s trailer Saturday morning after complaining about that person’s dog defecating in his yard, neighbors said Monday.

This led to a shootout with police on New Year’s Day that left a sheriff’s deputy and Ferryman dead, and a German Twp. police officer wounded.

Officials say Ferryman had a violent past. In fact, he was involved in a 26-hour standoff in 2001 in Malta Twp., Morgan County in southeast Ohio, according to the sheriff’s office there. He reportedly shot at neighbors and police after becoming upset that campers were taking firewood from a community woodpile. No injuries were reported.

But in the six years that Ferryman, 57, and his “best friend” Maria Blessing lived in a trailer at Enon Beach, neighbors say he was quiet and pleasant.

“They were good people,” said Sherry Dudeck, the park manager’s girlfriend.

Neighbor Maria Funkhouser, 59, said Ferryman was a pleasant person who kept mostly to himself.

“The only time we ever saw him out is when they were unloading the truck,” said Funkhouser.

In addition to shooting at police in 2001, Ferrryman was accused in 2009 of using a knife to threaten the son of the woman with whom he lived, according to a sheriff’s office report. Ferryman was taken into custody, but found not guilty by reason of insanity. He spent roughly three years in jail and mental facilities, and was discharged in 2005.

He moved to Clark County because it was determined that Ferryman had a support system here, said Trudy Sharp, Ohio Department of Mental Health communications director.

As a profile emerges of Ferryman, the community continues to mourn the death of Clark County Deputy Suzanne Waughtel Hopper, and hope for a full recovery of German Twp. Patrolman Jeremy Blum.

The silver Airstream trailer is the same one that Blessing and Ferryman used in Morgan County in 2001.

A parade of law enforcement officers stopped by the trailer park Monday to see Ferryman’s bullet-riddled home. The trailer’s approximately 50 square feet of living space was littered with broken glass and debris from shattered windows and dishes. The ground outside the camper was stained in front where Hopper fell.

Dudeck was at Blessing’s side during Saturday’s gunfight and said Ferryman’s girlfriend told her she feared the outcome. “She said, ‘They’re gonna kill him, aren’t they?’ ” Dudeck recalled.

Matt Sanctis and Samantha Sommer contributed to this report.