Sheriff’s deputies Tuesday had a brief stand-off with a
76-year-old county man suspected of threatening to kill his wife at
their Ridgemark home before he pointed a rifle at his chin and
fired a round, narrowly missing as he moved the firearm
”
at the last second,
”
according to a sheriff’s office spokesman.
Sheriff’s deputies Tuesday had a brief stand-off with a 76-year-old county man suspected of threatening to kill his wife at their Ridgemark home before he pointed a rifle at his chin and fired a round, narrowly missing as he moved the firearm “at the last second,” according to a sheriff’s office spokesman.
Deputies responded to the 1000 block of Sonnys Way in the Ridgemark gated community after a report of a man pointing a gun at his wife and threatening to kill her, said Lt. Roy Iler, spokesman for the sheriff’s office. When they arrived, the woman had gone to a neighbor’s house and deputies made contact with her. She informed investigators that the man, Walter Hitchcock, had “several” guns and was acting “irrational.”
The five deputies at the scene staged behind their cars and asked Hitchcock to come out of the house. He responded with continued profanities and by giving them the middle finger, Iler said.
Authorities negotiated with the man “for quite a while” before he stood in the doorway holding a rifle, one of nine confiscated after the incident. Deputies ordered him to put down his gun and told him to come out and talk, Iler said.
He then pointed the rifle toward his chin and shot a round, but moved “at the last second,” Iler said. Deputies initially thought he had shot himself as he fell to the ground and dropped the gun. As they approached him with firearms drawn, he sat up, pointed his fingers at them and said “bang, bang, bang,” Iler said. He also lunged toward one of the officers’ firearms. That deputy moved away and another one tased the suspect, according to the office.
“Our guys showed great restraint and great patience,” Iler said.
Deputies arrested Hitchcock on suspicion of willful discharge of a firearm in a negligent manner, brandishing a firearm, resisting arrest and making threats. His bail is set at $50,000. They confiscated the rifles, all of which were registered, Iler said.
Sheriff’s investigators found no criminal history for Hitchcock. His wife told deputies she was unsure what caused the issues when she was first approached before the stand-off. “She told them, ‘He has several guns, and I don’t know what’s wrong with him,'” Iler said.
