Woman shoots at pit bull but misses, kills husband instead

Police are considering filing charges against a Texas woman who shot her husband to death while attempting to kill a pit bull puppy.

Betty Walker claims she was aiming at a pit bull puppy that had lunged at neighborhood children.

Her husband Robert Walker, 53, had scooped the puppy up just moments before his wife retrieved a .38 revolver pistol from inside the house and fired two shots — while Mr. Walker was holding the dog.

One shot hit the puppy in its left foreleg. Another shot hit her husband, a retired seismic engineer, in his upper right chest.

Mr and Mrs Walker of Houston, Texas were visiting their son Robert Walker Jr and their grandchildren at his South Jackson, Mississippi home. The subject of the puppy came up more than once during their visit.

‘One day that dog’s gonna jump that fence,’ Mr Walker Jr remembers his father saying.

The puppy, named Cocaine, was kept in a fenced-in backyard enclosure. His owner, Lazarius Montgomery, said the dog was too small to jump the 4′ chain link fence by itself.

Mr Montgomery’s cousin, Robert Ferguson, said Cocaine couldn’t have escaped from the backyard on her own even she wanted to. “Somebody had to pick her up out the gate,” he said. “Ain’t no way she could’ve got out the gate. She can’t jump the gate, she’s just eight-months, a puppy,” he added.

Witnesses backed up his claims, telling WLBT TV there had been no attack at the time of the shooting.

Mrs. Walker’s son, Robert Walker Jr., said he went upstairs to lay down when he heard two shots.

“I jumped out of bed and I heard my momma scream,” he told police. “She was screaming, ‘Your daddy’s been shot! Your daddy’s been shot!’ ”

Assuming a robbery had occurred, the son ran to his pickup truck in search of his pistol.

Now his mother was screaming: “I shot your daddy! I shot your daddy!”

“I saw daddy laying on the ground. I’m holding him and I’m saying, ‘Daddy, stay up! Wake up! Breathe!’ ” he said.
Mr Walker Sr was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead two hours later.

Jackson police spokesman Colendula Green said the shooting death appears to have been accidental.

Ms Green said: “The dog was trying to attack the kids in the neighbourhood and at that time, the wife did shoot at the dog but instead shot her husband in the chest area.”

She left out one important detail — that Mrs. Green’s husband was holding the dog at the time of the shooting.

A Hinds County grand jury will decide whether to charge Mrs Walker.

“It was a freak accident,” said their son, Walker Jr. “I don’t know what else to say.”