AUBURN – Neighbors were still reeling from an ordeal that left a 70-year-old woman dead in her driveway Friday and a subsequent 17-hour standoff with police that ended with the death of the woman’s 42-year-old son.

“It’s been a nightmare for us,” said neighbor Bob Lamontagne, who with his wife, Pierrette, live next door to Margaret Peters, the woman who was shot to death in the driveway of her 1806 Minot Ave. home. “Things like that don’t happen every day.”

The Lamontagnes and several other neighbors were evacuated from their homes Friday afternoon after police surrounded the Peters’ house where they believed her son, James Michael, was barricaded after shooting his mother to death around 10 a.m. The standoff ended at 3 a.m. Saturday after police stormed the house and discovered James Michael dead in a back room.

“I’m fine today,” said Betty Yeaton, a neighbor who lives at 1827 Minot Ave., diagonally across from the Peters’ home. “It’s scary when you think about it. I have lived here for 58 years, and there’s never been anything like this before.”

Yeaton was heading to her weekly hair appointment and lunch date with a friend Friday when a police officer told her to go back into her house and lock all her windows and doors. Police initially thought that James Michael Peters was on the loose after shooting his mother.

“They told me not to let anyone or anything in,” she said. “It didn’t really bother me, because I feel safer in my house. Then they said he had a gun that could shoot through windows and walls.”

Neighbors were evacuated around 12:30 p.m. by police. Yeaton said she and another neighbor were brought to a church at Minot Corner to be checked by paramedics. The other woman was having trouble breathing, but Yeaton was OK, she said.

She spent the night with family on Fletcher Road, returning Saturday morning to retrieve some medication.

“But they let us stay,” she said, relieved to be reunited with her two cats and poodle, Katie. “They were never left alone overnight. They were tickled to death to see me.”

The Lamontagnes shared similar concerns with medication and pets. They were leaving for a doctor’s appointment Friday morning just after the shooting occurred. When they tried to return home, police wouldn’t let them through.

“I get 12 different medications,” said Lamontagne, who had been without them for more than 24 hours. “When we came home I rushed over here and first thing I took is those meds.”

They, too, left their dog overnight and stayed at their son’s home.

“I was worried about her,” he said, because of the possibility that the dog could be struck by a stray bullet. “But she was so good.”

Now he worries about the lingering effects of being so near a violent tragedy. Their house is about 40 feet from the Peters’.

“This has kind of shook us up. I don’t know if my wife will be able to sleep in her bedroom, and myself,” he said, noting that everyone seemed “petrified” by the day’s events.

“You hear about these things happening someplace else,” said Yeaton. “It’s worse when it’s close to home.”