Something to consider while reading this story, how would the fatalities and injuries that result from domestic violence be different, if the abusers didn't have access to a gun or guns? Could we do more to prevent tragedies like this, and why don't we?
from MSNBC:
Sheriff's deputy shot dead, wife goes into labor
Deputy Wyman, who served in Iraq as a U.S. Marine, was responding to domestic dispute
KNOXBORO, N.Y. — A sheriff's deputy in upstate New York died overnight Tuesday after being shot at the end of a six-hour standoff, and his wife went into labor with their second child upon hearing the news, local media reported.
Deputy Kurt Wyman, 24, died after being rushed to a Utica hospital following the shootout around 2 a.m. Tuesday inside a garage in the rural hamlet of Knoxboro, Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol said eight hours after the incident.
Sheriff's
spokesman Lt. James McCarthy told the Observer-Dispatch the couple has one child together, and that the deputy's wife, named in the report as Lauren, went into labor with the couple's second child upon hearing her husband had been shot.
WKTV reported that
members of Wyman's church received a text message Tuesday morning with the news of Wyman's death and his wife's labor.
The station said family and many law enforcement members had gathered at St. Elizabeth Medical Center, the hospital where Wyman died in surgery, the Dispatch reported, citing McCarthy.
Maciol said Wyman joined the sheriff's department in October 2007 and spent a year deployed in Iraq with a Marine Corps Reserve unit before returning to the police agency in 2009.
'Family was certainly No. 1' "Deputy Wyman was an exceptional public servant who served his country and who served his county with pride, and he will be greatly missed," Maciol said, according to the Dispatch. "Family was certainly No. 1 with him."
A Facebook profile apparently belonging to Lauren Wyman showed a pregnant woman smiling as she took a self-portrait photo; a page under Kurt Wyman's name showed a picture of a toddler — The Dispatch reported the couple also has an 18-month-old son — whose face was smudged with the evidence of a messy meal.
Survivors also include Wyman's parents and a sister.
As for the suspect in the case, Maciol alleged 40-year-old Christian Patterson shot Wyman once with a shotgun as officers tried to take him into custody around 2 a.m. ET.
The sheriff said three other officers returned fire and hit Patterson several times. He was in critical condition at the same hospital where Wyman died.
Six-hour standoff Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara said at a press conference that he intends to charge Patterson with aggravated murder, WKTV reported.
"The only punishment for it is life imprisonment without parole," he said, according to the station, adding that the office would file charges at an appropriate time pending Patterson's release from the hospital. Officials said Patterson had surgery Tuesday morning.
Maciol said Wyman and Deputy Mark Chrysler arrived at Patterson's home around 8 p.m. Monday after his live-in girlfriend called 911 and reported he was threatening to kill her and himself. The sheriff said Shannon Secor fled to a neighbor's home and was unharmed.
Patterson held the deputies at bay while other law enforcement officers arrived and tried to get him to surrender. Maciol says the officers rushed Patterson six hours later when he indicated he was going to harm himself. The sheriff refused to release any other details about the circumstances of the shootings.
Knoxboro is a tiny rural crossroads in the town of Augusta, a farming community of 2,000 residents about 30 miles southeast of Syracuse.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
