DIY satellite TV installer shoots wife dead

.22 handgun - not the best way to drill through walls

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 27th March 2008 13:25 GMT

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Officials are pondering whether to charge a Missouri DIY satellite TV installer who decided that the best way to punch a hole through the wall was with a .22 calibre handgun, and in so doing accidentally shot and killed his wife.

According to KCTV5.com, Ronald Long was attempting to install said system in the bedroom of his family's Deepwater home last Saturday. After "several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means" he popped two caps into the wall, unaware that his wife, Patsy, was outside the building.

The second round hit her in the chest, and although she was "given CPR by neighbors and family until medics arrived", she was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Sheriff's department spokesman Maj. Robert Hills explained: "He was under the impression that everybody was inside the residence, that he knew where everybody was at."

He added: "Once we complete a diagram of the incident, we will be submitting everything to the prosecuting attorney and let him decide if he wants to press criminal charges."

Hills said that "a person involved in such a case normally would be charged with manslaughter", KCTV5.com notes. ®

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