JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
A Jackson man is dead and a neighborhood pet is injured after a shooting by the victim's wife. She said she was aiming at a pit bull, attacking children, but neighborhood kids say there was no dog attack. Now, Jackson police are trying to sort it all out.
Folks who live in the 2100 block of Oakhurst Drive lost a neighbor this afternoon in a bizarre shooting incident. 53-year-old Robert Walker was killed by his wife, Betty, in what Jackson police are calling an accidental shooting, at this point.
Jackson police officer Colendula Green said, "The dog was trying to attack the kids in the neighborhood and at that time, the wife did shoot at the dog but instead shot her husband in the chest area."
Robert Ferguson is the cousin of the dog's owner. He said, "The man that got shot, he was outside with the kids. That's all we know, we just heard the four gunshots."
The bullets from one of those gunshots struck Lazarius Montgomery's 8-month-old pit bulldog.
Montgomery said, "I was in the house sleep and my cousin, right here, told me that somebody shot my dog. I saw a bullet hole in her leg. I don't know what happened."
The dog, named "Cocaine" was found bleeding on the back porch. Ferguson said the dog is always fenced in and couldn't have gotten out.
"Somebody had to pick her up out the gate. Ain' t no way she could've got out the gate. She can't jump the gate, just 8-months, a puppy," said Ferguson.
Witnesses, WLBT talked to, said there was no attack on neighborhood children at the time of the shooting. The dog was picked up by animal control officers and Officer Green says the owner could face charges.
Betty Walker has not been charged in her husband's death, but Officer Green says the case will be turned over to a grand jury.
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