Yoshihiro Hattori and the wrong house
Two boys looking for a Halloween party rang the bell at a decorated house on the right street. The party was a few doors away.
- When
- October 17, 1992
- Where
- East Brookside Drive, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
- Status
- Acquitted
Content note gun violence, death of a teenager. No graphic images.
In brief
On the evening of October 17, 1992, Yoshihiro "Yoshi" Hattori, a 16-year-old exchange student from Nagoya, Japan, and his host brother, Webb Haymaker, went looking for a Halloween party for exchange students in the Baton Rouge area. Yoshi was dressed as John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever and carried a camera. The party was at 10131 East Brookside Drive; they went to 10311, a house decorated for Halloween. When they rang and moved toward the carport, Bonnie Peairs opened a side door, saw them, slammed it and told her husband to get his gun. Rodney Peairs came to the door with a loaded .44 Magnum, shouted "Freeze," and shot Yoshi once in the chest as he walked toward him. Yoshi died. Peairs was not arrested that night. After protests from Japan, a grand jury indicted him for manslaughter, and in May 1993 a jury acquitted him. In 1994 a judge found him liable for Yoshi's death in a civil suit brought by Yoshi's parents.
Turning pointA jury found Rodney Peairs not guilty. A judge hearing the same facts in a civil court found the shooting was not justified and held him responsible for Yoshi's death.
- Victim
- Yoshihiro "Yoshi" Hattori, 16, AFS exchange student from Nagoya, Japan
- Looking for
- A Halloween party at 10131 East Brookside Drive
- Went to
- 10311 East Brookside Drive, also decorated for Halloween
- Shot by
- Rodney Peairs, with a .44 Magnum revolver, once in the chest
- Criminal trial
- Acquitted of manslaughter, May 23, 1993
- Civil suit
- Held liable for $653,077.85, September 15, 1994; affirmed on appeal
Watch the episode
Yoshihiro Hattori: The Wrong House
Also on TikTok
Timeline
August 1992
Yoshi Hattori, 16, arrives from Nagoya as an AFS exchange student. He lives with Richard and Holley Haymaker and their son Webb in Baton Rouge and attends McKinley High School.
October 17, 1992Evening
Yoshi, in a rented white jacket for a Saturday Night Fever costume and carrying a camera, drives with Webb to a Halloween party for exchange students on East Brookside Drive.
October 17, 1992
They stop at 10311, which is decorated for Halloween, instead of 10131. No one answers the doorbell. As they move toward the carport, Bonnie Peairs opens a side door, sees them, slams and locks it, and tells her husband to get his gun.
October 17, 1992
As the boys walk back down the driveway, Rodney Peairs opens the carport door holding a loaded, cocked .44 Magnum. Yoshi turns back toward him, apparently explaining they are there for the party. Peairs shouts "Freeze" and fires once into his chest. Yoshi dies.
October 1992
Police question Peairs and release him without charges. The case draws worldwide attention, especially in Japan, and the Japanese consul general raises it with Louisiana's governor.
November 4, 1992
A grand jury convened by District Attorney Doug Moreau indicts Rodney Peairs for manslaughter.
May 23, 1993
After a four-day trial in which Peairs testifies that he feared for his life, a jury acquits him after about three hours of deliberation.
November 1993
Yoshi's parents and the Haymakers present petitions for stricter gun laws, signed by about 1.7 million people in Japan and about 150,000 in the U.S., at the White House.
September 15, 1994
In a civil bench trial, Judge William Brown rejects Peairs's self-defense claim and finds him liable for $653,077.85 to Masaichi and Mieko Hattori.
October 6, 1995
Louisiana's First Circuit Court of Appeal affirms the civil judgment. On January 12, 1996, the Louisiana Supreme Court declines to review it.
The full story
The party
Yoshihiro Hattori, called Yoshi, came to Louisiana from Nagoya in August 1992 as a 16-year-old exchange student. He lived with the Haymaker family in Baton Rouge and went to McKinley High School with their son, Webb, who was the same age.
On Saturday, October 17, the two boys drove out to a Halloween party for exchange students. Yoshi had rented a white jacket to go as John Travolta’s character in Saturday Night Fever, and he brought a camera. The party was at 10131 East Brookside Drive. They pulled up instead at 10311, a house with Halloween decorations and cars in the driveway. It looked like the right place.
The carport door
Nobody answered the bell. As the boys walked toward the carport, a side door opened. Bonnie Peairs looked at them, slammed the door and locked it, and told her husband to get his gun. Webb was starting to realize they had the wrong house, and the boys headed back down the driveway.
The carport door opened again. Rodney Peairs stood there with a loaded .44 Magnum. Yoshi turned back toward him, apparently to explain that they had come for the party. Webb called to him to come back. Peairs shouted “Freeze.” Yoshi kept walking toward him, and Peairs shot him once in the chest. Webb ran to a neighbor’s house for help. Yoshi died.
The trial
Police questioned Peairs that night and let him go. In Japan the killing was front-page news, and the Japanese consul general took it to Louisiana’s governor. A grand jury indicted Peairs for manslaughter. At trial in May 1993 he said he had never seen his wife so frightened and had feared for his life. He acknowledged that he had seen no weapon. The jury deliberated for about three hours and found him not guilty.
The civil court
Yoshi’s parents, Masaichi and Mieko Hattori, sued. In September 1994, Judge William Brown heard the case without a jury, rejected Peairs’s self-defense claim and found him liable for Yoshi’s death, awarding the family about $653,000. An appeals court affirmed the judgment in 1995.
The Hattoris and the Haymakers spent years campaigning for gun control in both countries and gathered nearly two million signatures. The party the boys were looking for was a few doors down the same street.
What the video couldn't include
Freeze
In Japan, much of the coverage turned on the word Peairs shouted. Yoshi's English was limited, and commentators asked whether he understood it as a command. The appeals court found nothing in his or Webb's conduct that provoked the shooting.
No weapon
Peairs acknowledged at trial that he did not see a weapon. Bonnie Peairs testified about her own reaction: there was no thinking involved.
After the verdict
On the courthouse steps, Peairs said he was very sorry any of it had happened and that he was giving up his guns. Former Louisiana prosecutors said publicly that manslaughter had been the wrong charge to bring.
Two courts, two answers
The criminal jury had to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The civil judge applied a lower standard and found that the use of deadly force was not reasonable and amounted to an intentional wrong.
What the families did next
Mieko and Masaichi Hattori spent three decades campaigning for gun control and funded exchange visits for American students to Japan. They retired from advocacy in 2022. Webb Haymaker died that year, aged 46.
The video and the record
The episode tells this case in about 1 minutes with illustrated recreations. Here is how its key moments line up with what is documented.
They were five houses too soon
Compressed
The addresses were 10131 and 10311 East Brookside Drive. The distance between them is described differently in different accounts.
Inside, she told her husband to get the gun
Documented
Bonnie Peairs's account, as recited in the appeals court opinion.
Yoshi turned back toward him, smiling and explaining they were there for the party
Documented
Based on Webb Haymaker's account. His exact words are not recorded.
Webb ran next door for help. Yoshi died
Compressed
Accounts differ on whether Yoshi died at the scene or on the way to the hospital.
The jury acquitted him
Documented
Not guilty of manslaughter, May 23, 1993.
The costume, the doorway, two courtrooms
Reconstruction
AI-generated illustrations. No photographs of Yoshi, the Peairs family or the scene are reproduced.
What the four marks mean
- Documented
- Shown as it is recorded in court filings, police statements, or consistent reporting.
- Reconstruction
- A reasonable visual recreation of a documented event. The event happened; the image is illustrative.
- Compressed
- Real events shortened, merged, or reordered to fit the runtime.
- Dramatized
- A storytelling choice (framing, wording, emphasis) that the record does not establish.
Sources
- [1]Louisiana Court of Appeal, First CircuitHattori v. Peairs, 662 So. 2d 509 (La. App. 1st Cir. 1995)
- [2]Supreme Court of LouisianaHattori v. Peairs, 666 So. 2d 322 (La. 1996)
- [3]United Press International“Rodney Peairs found innocent in exchange student shooting case”
- [4]United Press International“Parents of slain Japanese student win”
- [5]Associated Press, via The Roanoke Times“Man cleared in shooting of Japanese teen-ager”
- [6]Facing South (Institute for Southern Studies)“Freeze”
- [7]Deseret News“Shot that killed teen is heard around world”
- [8]The Washington Post“Manslaughter wrong charge, Louisiana ex-prosecutors say”
- [9]The Christian Science Monitor“Cultural differences thrown into relief by Louisiana case”
- [10]The Trace“Yoshi Hattori's Death United Americans Around the Brady Bill”
- [11]The Carleton Voice (Carleton College)“Each Other's Arms”
- [12]Lewis & Clark Law Review“Self-Defense and Mistake in Criminal and Tort Law”
- [13]The Advocate, via Legacy.comWebb Haymaker obituary
- [14]Wikipedia“Killing of Yoshihiro Hattori”
VerifiedKey facts in this file were checked against multiple consistent reports and first-person or official accounts. Last reviewed October 6, 2026. How we check cases
