Scared of my neighbor after hearing big fight

TLDR My shared-wall neighbors had a huge fight and I am terrified of the man now

I live alone with my dog in a duplex. The neighbors in the other half have had fights on and off since they moved in, but an especially bad fight recently has made me really scared and I’m having difficulty living next to them.

The man and woman often bicker but sometimes it escalates into pretty big yelling matches. The big fight happened more than a month ago. Forgive me for not remembering everything, because I had just woken up and was panicking.

I woke up in the middle of the night to hear them fighting. I’m a heavy sleeper so it was loud by the time I woke up and it took me a while to actually be aware of what was happening. I heard the man pounding on a door and yelling “Let me in! Open the door!”The woman was on the other side of our shared wall, pleading with him to stop. I was trying to decide whether to call the police or whether that would escalate the situation. He must have either busted through the door or gotten it unlocked (I don’t remember), but the woman started screaming “Get away from me!” over and over. It truly sounded like he was going to kill her, so I immediately called 911. After giving them all the details, I took my dog and hid in a room that doesn’t share a wall.

Despite us living close to a police dispatch station, it took at least 15 minutes for a cop car to arrive. The fight died down during that time. When the cop came to their door, the man was very aggressive towards him and insisted everything was fine and no one had called for the police. The woman also said everything was okay. The police did not enter the house, where I’m sure they would’ve seen evidence of a huge fight and possibly a broken door.

It has been weeks since this incident and they have not had any more big fights, but I am extremely on edge. I have tried to act normal when I see them while coming or going from the house, but I am terrified of the man. I heard the “get away from me” in my head for days afterwards. I have had several nightmares where the man is yelling at and approaching me (he has never been aggressive to me irl). Every time I hear any noise from their side, I instantly enter hypervigilance and low grade panic. I also get a lot of headaches and the stress has definitely made them more frequent.

There have been other fights and incidents, but this was the first one I was home for. I know the police were called for at least one other fight, and that a car chase between the man and the cops ended at their door.

I have started looking at places to move but it is proving extremely difficult due to the size of my dog and some other factors. I also like all the other neighbors and it is a safe area to walk my dog, which makes it hard to leave. I am sure that neither the property owner nor the rental company have any idea the police have come to their property three times. I have thought about reporting the police visits to the property management company, but I don’t know if they would keep it confidential how they found out. I also don’t think any other neighbors even know the name of the rental company, which would make it obvious that I was the one who reported them.

I’m at a loss as to what to do. Do I try to report this to someone? How do I protect myself? Should I continue to look for a place to move?

Posted Aug 21, 2026, 10:55 PM UTC

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