Contributors

Doug Heckbert. Doug’s work experience includes probation officer and prison caseworker with Alberta Correctional Services, parole officer with the National Parole Service, staff trainer and program director with Native Counselling Services of Alberta, and instructor with MacEwan University. Doug obtained Bachelor and Masters degrees from the University of Alberta and has taught courses to community groups and conducted research projects concerning offenders.

Debbie J. Doyle. Deb is a retired veteran of the Edmonton Police Service. During her career, she was seconded to the United Nations Peacekeeping force in Timor Leste and worked in the Vulnerable Person’s Unit. After serving two tours of duty, she returned to Edmonton, was promoted, and worked in the Child Protection Section and the Internet Child Pornography section. She is currently writing novels and is presently compiling and editing, After the Force, Book 8 in the Durvile True Cases series.

Howard Sapers. From 2004 to 2016 Howard was the Correctional Investigator of Canada. He has also served as Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Alberta, was an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Director of Canada’s National Crime Prevention Centre Investment Fund, and a Vice Chairperson of the Parole Board Canada. Recently he completed two years as the Independent Advisor on Corrections Reform for the province of Ontario.

go ahead and
Shoot me!

And Other True Cases About
Ordinary Criminals

go ahead and
Shoot me!

And Other True Cases About

Ordinary Criminals

DOUG HECKBERT

Foreword by Howard Sapers

Afterword by Debbie J. Doyle

Durvile Publications

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Durvile.com

Durvile Publications Ltd.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

www.durvile.com

Copyright © 2020 Doug Heckbert

The publisher and author wish to acknowledge the ancestral and traditional territory of Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 Nations of the Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Blackfoot, Stoney Nakoda, Tsuut’ina, as well as the Métis. They help us steward this land, as well as honour and celebrate this place.

Library and Archives Cataloguing in Publications Data

Go Ahead and Shoot Me!
And other true cases about ordinary criminals

Heckbert, Doug, author | Shyba, Lorene, editor

Book Seven in the True Cases Series

1. True Crimes | 2. Probation Officers
3. Canadian Law | 4. Canadian History

ISBN: 978-1-988824-64-2 (e-book)

Cover illustration, Rich Théroux.

Editing and design, Lorene Shyba.

Durvile Publications would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through Canadian Heritage Canada Book Fund and the Government of Alberta, Alberta Media Fund.

The statements, views, and opinions contained in this publication are solely those of the author and not of the publisher and the editors. Neither the publisher nor the editors can be held responsible for errors, accuracy, or currency of content; for the results of any action taken on the basis of the information in the book; or consequences arising from the use of information contained herein.

All rights reserved. Contact Durvile Publications Ltd. for permissions.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the men and women who have successfully turned their lives around from criminal activity, either instantly or over time, and who are no longer a concern to the community.
Many are quietly living ordinary lives and many are seen as role models.

Foreword, Howard Sapers

A few years ago, I heard from my friend and colleague Doug Heckbert with news that he had started a writing project about clients he had worked with over his years as a probation officer. As always, I was happy to hear from him and felt that he was onto a good idea.

Doug and I had originally met in the mid 1980s when he was Director of Training for the Native Counselling Services of Alberta and I was Provincial Executive Director for the Alberta John Howard Society. A little later in our careers, we worked together as faculty members in the Correctional Services program at what is now MacEwan University in Edmonton. I knew him as a fair-minded professional who, like me, believed that true justice requires compassion and an ability to separate the acts that have been committed from the person who committed them.

As we spoke more about the project over time, I was surprised when he told me that his book was to be published with the provocative title of “Go Ahead and Shoot Me!” I was afraid that Doug was about to move away from his principles and turn some real-life tragedies into pulp fiction, but I should have known better. In the book, Doug actually offers a sensitive and insightful treatment of his clients, pulling the phrase from a story about a woman he called Sally for the purpose of his writing. The phrase “Go ahead and shoot me” was what Sally’s husband screamed as he taunted her to shoot him with a rifle he had to teach her how to use. So at his insistence she shot him and was charged with attempted murder. By the time Doug took her on as a client, she had come to see her offence as being pretty stupid.

The criminal justice system is far from perfect. To the extent that it works at all, it does so only when actors in the system remember that behind the case numbers and criminal records are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives. Doug reminds us that when people commit a crime, they are criminal only in that moment. They have lives and ambitions beyond their crimes and the system is supposed to help them find their place in society once their debt is paid.

Throughout the stories in the book, Doug digs deep into his motivations and examines his own morality as he provides honest portraits of men and women in conflict with the law. Readers catch a glimpse of real people—often at their worst but sometimes at their best—with real problems and real obstacles to their success. In telling their stories, Doug tells his own. We can feel the turmoil not only in the lives of his clients, but also in Doug as he learns and then masters the work of a probation officer. Some of the stories about his most memorable clients are tales of success, others are riddled with ambiguity. He writes about Juanito, a long-time addict who finds compassion in a drug court and with some support and guidance finally sees a way to face his addiction. And Joseph, who could easily turn his chronic criminality into a career, instead finds a way to make better choices as he learns how to avoid violence. He recalls the story of Mary, weary beyond her years and trapped in a life the justice system can’t make better. The cast of characters is rich and as we meet them, the rough terrain of criminal justice is revealed along with Doug’s insights about how to navigate it.

Our criminal justice system relies upon public confidence for its legitimacy. For the public to be confident, it must be informed. Sadly, too much of the public discourse is distorted by fear mongering, half-truths, outright lies, and the manufacture of entertainment. Go Ahead and Shoot Me! presents an antidote to the misinformation about crime and justice. While it focuses on only one component of the system, community corrections, its content can easily be broadly applied. Readers become more knowledgeable about how the system works, some of its frailties and how discretion and judgment are just as important as rules and procedures. Understanding this leads to an appreciation of not only the challenges associated with the administration of justice, but also of the principles such as restraint and proportionality upon which it is based.

Nitty-gritty everyday life is the fuel stock of the system. The lives of those in conflict with the law intertwine with the lives of the people who administer it. Good days, bad days, disappointments and distractions all factor into the how and why of crime. The same is true of the successes and failures of the men and women who work in our courts and jails, police and community corrections offices. Go Ahead and Shoot Me! takes us from the front of the house to backstage. In so doing, we are treated to some good story telling as well as some memorable and important lessons.

— Howard Sapers, Correctional Investigator of Canada (2004 – 2016)

Preface

This book, Go Ahead and Shoot Me! is about people I supervised when I worked as a probation officer and also contains a few cases I came to know about during the process of researching and writing the book. The title was chosen to model the reality that I have had to deal with over the years, the phrase “Go Ahead and Shoot Me!” being the utterance that motivated the crime in the first story in the book, and the subtitle reflecting the fact that there are very few serious offences in the book, but many very ordinary offenders. This will become evident as you work your way through the stories and meet the people. They represent, in my view, the majority of actual offenders in our system—ordinary people who made questionable decisions, were investigated and charged by police, appeared in court and, if found guilty, ended up in corrections.

In the early part of my career, spanning a period of nearly ten years, I worked as a probation officer, a parole officer and a caseworker in a minimum security prison. In the latter part of my career, spanning a period of over thirty years, I was involved in staff training, career development at the college/university level, and research in criminal justice. Throughout my years of practice, I must admit that I dealt with some horrific crimes committed by people who were a real hazard to the community, but fortunately these dangerous offenders formed a small minority of my clientele. The people I mainly dealt with had committed crimes that rarely come to the attention of the public.

People who appear in these pages could easily be the guy or gal next door or who is even part of the family. In my view, it is ordinary people who commit most of the crimes on any given day in any community and in any region of the country.

As a story teller, I have changed the clients’ names to ensure confidentiality. In my view, there is nothing helpful for the reader to know exactly who I am talking about. Also, I have disguised other personal details, such as exactly where they lived, where they worked or where they went to school. Again, knowing these precise details would not, in my view, be helpful. You will also note that I refer to ‘the city’ without naming any particular city. This practice on my part contributes to privacy and confidentiality, ensuring that the people in these stories will not be individually recognized even by location of where they lived. I would prefer that you focus your attention on the character, behaviour and attitudes of these people, not just on where they lived, worked, went to school, their actual names or the details of their crimes.

In order to tell their stories, I have revived my memory, and have tried to be as accurate as possible. As I would write about one case, details of other cases came flooding over me, and this has become a wonderful nostalgic journey. I have intentionally kept information about legal processes to a minimum in the book, but include some aspects of criminal law when a legal context might illuminate the world in which criminals operate. I have also tried to minimize the use of slang we used back in the day that might now be perceived as incorrect, but old-fashioned slang sometimes sneaks into authentic dialogue as I remember it. It is not meant to offend and I try to justify its use.

In my work, I tried hard not to get mad at the people I worked with. It was easy to be frustrated by the behaviour or attitude of some clients, but I found it counter-productive to get angry. I tried to see the good in people and to work with those strengths, as opposed to harping on the offence or other problems and circumstances over which I (or they) had no control. I soon came to realize that personal change takes time and rarely occurs with the snap of a finger. I quite often saw the look of amazement, almost wonderment, on people’s faces when ‘the lights came on’, that is when they realized something in their life experience that was a major influence in changing their behaviour in a positive way.

The people I have written about have all made a lasting impact on me personally. One of my greatest lessons was the importance of prevention. Our system depends very heavily on laying charges, getting convictions and sentencing people to terms of probation or imprisonment. If only we could summon the will and resources to focus on preventative measures rather than devote so much of our time and resources on reacting to someone’s problematic behaviour, we’d be much further ahead.

I challenge you, the reader, to seriously think about the popular phrases, “Let’s get tough on crime,” and “You do the crime, you do the time.” After reading about the people in these stories, how would “getting tough” or “do the time” with them (or anyone else) make our communities a safer place? Might better thoughts be, “Let’s get smart about crime,” or “Let’s get real about crime”?

I also hope you reach a point where you understand what many of us working in criminal justice have come to understand; that there is a fine line between those who commit crimes and those who don’t. Or, stated another way, that many people are just one event or one decision away from becoming an offender. As Lorene Shyba, my publisher commented, the ordinary offender and the ordinary person can be simply a hairsbreadth away from each other on the moral compass.

So, get comfortable, relax and read about some of the folks that I dealt with. The crimes and people I write about are real. These are not actors. These folks are not larger than life, they live real lives. They are part of the thousands of offenders whose names and crimes rarely or never receive any attention from the media. Some of the crimes they committed were serious, some were stupid, some were funny, and some were sad. That is what most true crime is actually about and what most real people who commit crime are like— rather ordinary people who could be your neighbour or even a member of your family. My hope is that by reading this book you will come away with a better understanding of crime, people who commit crime, and the criminal justice system.

— Doug Heckbert BA, MA Criminal Justice Educator

Part I

Under My Supervision

Introduction to Part I

Back in 1966, I showed up for my first day on the job as a probation officer. Reporting to the receptionist, I gave her my name and asked to see Mr. Campbell, the senior probation officer. Emily, the receptionist, looked through various filing drawers, then returned to the reception wicket and said to me, “I’m sorry but I can’t find your file. When were you placed on probation?” I paused, and replied, “I’m the new probation officer!” She was most apologetic, then scurried off to find my personnel file somewhere before ushering me in to meet the director, Mr. Campbell. Later, Emily and I had a good laugh about this incident, and we worked well together for five years until I left the city for another probation office.

I found it interesting that even Emily, with all her experience in dealing with people who commit crime coming into a large probation office, initially figured I was a client, not a staff member. Could she not tell the difference? Or, maybe there is not much obvious difference? Could people who commit crime be as “normal” or “ordinary” as people who don’t commit crime? I was not embarrassed by this mix-up, but it did get me thinking right from day one about the types of people that I would end up dealing with. How normal/ordinary would they be?

I was twenty years old when hired as a probation officer; the legal drinking age at the time was twenty-one, so my colleagues sometimes bootlegged for me over the next couple of months when I wanted a case of beer. I was one of the first young probation officers who was hired with a university degree. I joined at a time when probation administrators were looking to hire university graduates for their staff, which up to then had often been ex-military, church pastors or retired policemen. All were men— women would not begin to work their way into the ranks of probation officers until a few years later.

I was assigned to a unit headed by one of the former police officers. These men took me under their wing and helped me learn about law, people who commit crime, and what criminality was all about. I think I brought a youthful exuberance and scholarly discipline to the office. I fit in well with most of the staff and quickly settled into the job of a probation officer which entailed preparing pre-sentence reports for the courts and supervising a caseload of adults who were on probation for a variety of offences. I handled some probationers in the city but also supervised cases and attended courts in nearby, smaller communities. Towards my latter time in the city office, I was assigned to the courthouse and ended up spending most of my day at the courthouse, representing the probation branch in its dealings with judges, crown prosecutors, defence counsel, the clerk’s office, the media, representatives of various agencies, offenders, their families and a few victims. As well, I became involved in developing programs for young adults on probation to help them increase their employment and interpersonal skills.

My close friends have always been interested in the work I do and I have always been willing to talk about issues regarding crime and justice. I find it helpful for others to understand my roles in the justice system by telling them stories about the people I have worked with, both staff and clients. My friends would make interesting comments like, “You a probation officer? Knowing some of the things you have done, you should be on probation!” Or, “You have lived a really sheltered life. What do you know about real life, the law, people who commit crime and what life is like on the wrong side of the tracks?” Regardless of these views, both of which I believe are accurate, I loved my first full time job as a probation officer. I considered my caseload of probationers to be interesting people who got themselves into interesting situations. I was friendly towards these folks, but I was not their friend, although I did end up curling, (curling the sport not curling as in hair styling) with a former client one winter after he successfully completed his period of probation under my supervision.

Early in my career, I realized that the general public, including my friends, did not know very much about criminal justice. Some of what they thought they knew was actually totally wrong. People can have strong opinions about justice; but, sadly in my view, their opinions are often based on faulty information. This is not a good situation for people in a democracy, where making criminal law or having input into very serious matters such as crime and justice, but basing some of that input on wrong information, really calls into question the value of the resulting laws and related policies.

What I have noticed is that many people with strong, negative opinions about crime and justice often soften their views when presented with quality, accurate, and realistic information about the individuals I dealt with and their circumstances. One point I always try to drive home is that the person (criminal) is not the behaviour (crime). There is much more to the person than just their criminal behaviour.

this book Go Ahead and Shoot Me is in two parts. The first part deals with clients, also known as probationers or offenders, who were under my supervision as a probation officer. The second part deals with some folks with criminal records who I came to know as a result of researching and writing this book. All the people I write about as well as their offences are ordinary in one way or another and all the chapters in the book explore this idea in more detail.

The criminal justice system is best understood in terms of its four components:

1. Community (including the general public, offenders, victims and legislative bodies which make criminal law).

2. Police (including national police services, provincial or state police services; and municipal police services).

3. Courts (including judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers).

4. Corrections (including community based services, like probation and parole, and institutional services such as remand centers, correctional institutions and penitentiaries).

Corrections is unique in that it has two goals or functions:

1. To protect the public.

2. To assist offenders to become law-abiding citizens.

How do we achieve these goals? Well, we protect the public by controlling offenders. The amount of control offenders need is determined by the perceived risk they pose to the public.

This risk is determined by examining information such as the current offence(s), their previous criminal record, and their social circumstances, such as age, family dynamics, education, employment, mental health, physical health, influence of peers, use of alcohol and drugs and their financial situation. Armed with this information, justice professionals can protect the public quite well by controlling offenders only as much as necessary. Some offenders need a lot of control; thus the existence of maximum security penitentiaries to house high risk offenders. Most offenders, however, need much less control; thus the existence of sentences like probation, with conditions such as directing them to keep the peace, be of good behaviour and to report to a probation officer as required.

A common form of sentence for criminal charges is a fine in the form of a financial penalty. Once the fine is paid, no further action is required by the offender. A fine is often, but not always, enough to protect the public in that the offender usually does not commit another crime—no further control is needed.

The other goal of corrections is to assist offenders to become law-abiding citizens. This involves assessing the offender’s social circumstances mentioned above and developing a case plan to work with the offender to change those circumstances that were thought to be somehow lacking for that person. We believe these circumstances contributed, at least in part, to them becoming in conflict with the law; and we are obligated to be part of a process to change those conditions, thereby, deterring or preventing future criminal acts. Correctional workers assist offenders to become law-abiding citizens by helping offenders as much as possible to make changes in their lives so they don’t become repeat offenders. Some offenders actually need very little help from justice professionals. They simply decide to live within the confines of the law from now on; and that is what they do—totally on their own with little or no help from criminal justice or other professionals.

However, in my experience, many offenders need a hand at sorting things out in their minds. They are often unclear as to what they want to do with their lives or where to go to seek help—some aren’t even aware just yet that they have a problem. Correctional professionals can be very helpful to folks like this, assisting them to gain focus and control over their lives and, thus, staying out of future conflict with the law. There are some offenders, however, that, no matter how much help they are offered, simply do not want to (or don’t yet know how to) change their behaviour. These folks soon re-offend. In these cases, correctional professionals accept the fact that they did what they could in the time prescribed through the Court’s sentence and with the resources available through the correctional service and in the community.

So, to sum up the dual goals of corrections, we control offenders as much as necessary and we help offenders as much as possible. This was my job as a probation officer. I guess I was pretty good at it because I was asked by my employer to take on duties of increasing responsibility within the first office in which I worked and later within the correctional service in a supervisory capacity.

You will see in some of these stories, such as Sally (Go Ahead and Shoot Me!) that the initial charge (attempted murder) was very serious; yet, by the time all the court appearances were over and a new charge emerged to better represent the actual circumstances, the new charge was much less seriousness (dangerous use of a firearm). No doubt the media paid a fair bit of attention to the initial incident, but I doubt if anything later appeared in the media as to the actual sentence. The public may have learned something about the initial incident, which seemed extremely serious at first; but, upon conclusion of the court process, the public probably learned absolutely nothing about what actually happened.

All the chapters in Part I, with the exception of Barry, are about ordinary people living fairly normal lives who somehow found themselves in trouble with the law. That is where I became involved. In Barry’s case, he came from an unstable background and got himself into a fair bit of trouble. It turns out that cases like Barry’s are quite common, rather typical—there are quite a number of folks we encounter in criminal justice who fit this profile. Most of the other cases are about ordinary people living fairly normal lives before getting into trouble. Initially in my career, I was surprised by the number of “ordinary”, “normal” and “average” cases I dealt with. I was not surprised, however, by the fairly large number of people experiencing personal instability who committed crime—these were “common” and “run-of-the-mill” encounters for those of us working in the justice system. Thus, the concept of ordinary applies to both the people and to the crimes they commit.

1. Sally: Go Ahead and Shoot Me!

Sally was assigned to my probation caseload following a series of court appearances she had made over the period of about a year. Her length of probation was twelve months—the charge, “Dangerous Use of a Firearm.” The usual conditions applied such as keeping the peace and being of good behaviour but in addition, she was directed to “take counselling as required.” This condition is a fairly common one, ordered by the Court when there are concerns about a client’s personal stability, emotional well-being, and/or possible mental illness. I had not been trained as a psychologist, but had taken counselling workshops and would routinely sit and listen to clients who were upset by something in their lives, or when there appeared to be some deviance in their background.

I was on my way to the police station to read the police report on another client so I decided to ask for Sally’s police report at the same time. When I gave the clients’ names to the officer, he told me that my first client’s file was normal size, but, he added, “You better have a while to look at Sally’s report. She was originally charged with attempted murder!”

As I waited for the officer to return with the reports, the words “take counselling, attempted murder, and dangerous use of a firearm,” danced in my head. “What was this Sally going to be like,” I wondered? “More intriguing than most, I expect.”

The officer arrived, using both arms to carry two heavy banker-style boxes. He plunked the boxes down in front of me on the counter and on top of the boxes was a thin file folder. I reached for the thin folder first that summarized my first client’s case and it took about five minutes to read it all and write my summary notes. Then I turned my attention to Sally’s files. The officer asked me, “You sure you got the time to go through all this?”

Normally, police report files were quite brief, as was the one I had just read, with succinct statements of what happened to form the basis of the charge and what the disposition was in court. But Sally’s police reports comprised dozens of folders jammed into the two boxes. Some folders were very thick, while a few only had a few pieces of paper in them. I had to be quick as I had other appointments to go to so I took the most recently dated file and opened it. There was a summary: “Accused pleaded guilty in Court to one count of dangerous use of a firearm; sentenced to one year probation with conditions. Plea to lesser charge OK’d by Prosecutor.”

I am no stranger to firearms, having hunted migratory birds such as ducks and geese as well as upland game birds including grouse and partridge since I was a teenager. Firearms to me were an important tool, to be used with respect and care, and not something to be afraid of. I had only experienced one incident involving the misuse of firearms and that had been a few years before. My dad and I were hiding in a hand-dug pit, waiting for geese to come to our decoys when an idiot drove his red pickup truck into the field about two hundred yards from us and started shooting at our decoys, in line with the pit, with a rifle. We hunkered down as far as we could in the pit while bullets whizzed by and hit the ground nearby. Dad grabbed his white handkerchief, stuffed a corner of it into the end of his gun barrel, thrust the barrel out of the pit and waved it back and forth vigorously. The shooting stopped right away. We heard the truck start and then it roared away from the field. Aside from this personal experience, I also knew from media reports that some people had been tragically injured or killed by others who used firearms inappropriately.

Now I had at least a brief picture of what had happened in Sally’s case. I started thumbing through the other files, but there was very little information giving further details. What I did learn is that at some of Sally’s court appearances, bail was the issue and at other court appearances, the case was remanded upon the request of Sally’s lawyer.

I returned the boxes and folders to the officer, saying that I had to get going but might be back to gather more information. On the way back to the office, the picture that developed in my mind was that Sally was initially charged with attempted murder but the prosecutor and the defence lawyer eventually agreed to a reduced, less serious charge of dangerous use of a firearm. The judge accepted the reduced charge and had suspended Sally’s sentence for twelve months, releasing her on a probation order with the usual conditions plus the added condition to take counseling. A fascinating mental image was forming in my mind, one that was of extreme seriousness—attempted murder—and one that was very routine—twelve months probation.

“Aaaah,” I sighed. “This will be quite something to deal with.” A day or so later, I called Sally to book an appointment to see her at her home. The plan was that I would gather information about her such as age, finances, education, work record, health, marital situation, and the offence, then develop a case plan with her for the period of probation. The appointment was for two days time, at her home.

I arrived at Sally’s address in the north-central part of the city. As I pulled up in front of the house, I noted it was an older bungalow, about 1100 square feet with a well-kept yard featuring grass lawns, shrubs, flowers, and trees. The outside of the home was a combination of grey stucco and brown wood panels, in good condition. Nicely kept houses and yards were on either side of Sally’s.

I head to the front door which faced the street. The woman who came to the door introduced herself as Sally. I estimated her to be about forty years old, of average height, weight, and build. Once inside the home, she introduced me to Roger, her husband. He was about the same age as Sally, about five feet ten inches and 170 pounds, with slightly greying wavy hair. Sally led us through the front room into the kitchen where she offered coffee. I accepted and we all sat down at the kitchen table; Sally, Roger, and me.

I started out the interview by explaining that the purpose of this meeting is to review the probation order, to be sure she understood what had happened in court, to gather information about her, and then to develop a case plan that covered what she needed to do to complete her probation.

As I worked through the probation order, phrase by phrase and condition by condition, Sally said she fully understood what probation was, and what she had to do. Sally relayed her information to me in a pleasant, easy-going manner with no hint of anger, no hesitation. Roger sat quietly at the kitchen table, listening intently to our discussions but not saying very much.

In response to my questions about their home, Sally told me that they had lived at this address for nearly twenty years. She worked part-time as a clerk in a downtown department store and Roger had worked for many years in a warehouse in the north end of the city. They had two children, both girls, who were doing well in high school. Both Sally and Roger had attended high school in the city and both reported to be in good health. I noticed the furnishings in the house are relatively new, so on the surface it appeared that Sally and Roger were doing well financially.

I wanted to hear about the offence; but it was a matter to be explored with solemnity, tact and respect. Attempted murder is a very serious charge. When I judged that the interview was going well and we were comfortable with each other, I decided it was time to explore what the offence was all about. “Thanks for all the information about your house, family, and work,” I said. “Now, can you tell me what the charge is all about?”

There is a long pause. Sally and Roger looked back and forth at each other, neither speaking nor displaying overt facial expressions. Eventually, Sally cleared her throat and began to speak. Roger just sat there at the table, quiet. Over the course of the next while, I listened and digested the scenario that had taken place right over in the next room.

“Well,” she said. “For years, Roger would go out for beers with some of the guys from work, nearly every Friday after work. He wouldn’t get home until eight or nine in the evening, and sometimes he was pretty drunk. For a while, I accepted this behaviour and didn’t say a thing. He then started to come home later and later, saying he was hungry and horny. This really bugged me, but again I didn’t say anything. But it continued and I started telling him that I was not the least bit pleased that he came home drunk and demanding. He normally didn’t say much when I got after him, but he did not change. It just kept happening.”

“So this one time,” she continued, “about a year ago, he came home drunk and wanting sex. I had enough of being treated this way so I really lit into him.” When I asked her where this all happened she got up from her chair and pointed down the hall to the room we’d just walked through. “We were in the living room, just over there,” she said. She spun around and then started re-enacted the scene as if was happening all over again.

‘You son of a bitch!’ I yell at him. ‘You come home drunk and being a jerk, expect me to do everything for you. Well, that’s all gonna change right now and I won’t be putting up with this shit any more. So, you get out of here and sober up!’

“I was furious and I don’t usually swear,” she tells me, “but I’d had it up to here with him!” she said, waving her hand across her throat. She continues:

He’s staggering around and slurs, ‘I ain’t going nowhere and you can’t make me. This is my house, too. What are you gonna do? Pick me up and throw me out?’ Then he kinda laughs so I scream at him, ‘No. I know I can’t throw you out. But I’m so mad I could kill you’. He has this weird twisted smile on his face, you know, and says, ‘Oh, how you gonna do that? How you gonna kill me?’ ‘Well, I’ll shoot you!’ I yell back at him, mad as hell. ‘Oh, I see,’ he sneers at me. ‘And where’s your gun?’ I say, ‘Well, you have your rifle downstairs. I’ll use that!’ Then he just snorts at me and says, ‘Do you want me to go get the gun? You probably don’t even know where it is!’ ‘Alright, asshole,’ I tell him. ‘You go get the gun!’ So he does.

By her own account, Sally was enraged by this time. She’d had enough. The way she tells it, Roger staggered across the living room to the hallway, lurched his way down the stairs to the basement, found the storage room, grabbed the rifle (a 308 Winchester he used for hunting deer) and stumbled his way back up the stairs to where she was waiting and fuming. Pacing back and forth across the kitchen, she carries on telling the story.

‘Here, bitch’, he yells at me, then hands me the rifle, and staggers back across the living room, leaving about eight paces between us. I sling the rifle over my shoulders for a second, all defiant, then I point it straight at him. ‘Where’s the bullets?’ I yell.‘They’re downstairs’, he says. ‘Want me to get them?’ So I scream, ‘Yeah, asshole, you go get the bullets!’ So he does!

The way she tells it, Roger again staggered across the living room to the hallway, lurched his way down the stairs to the basement, found the storage room, grabbed the shell package and stumbled his way back up the stairs to where Sally was still waiting, and still fuming. Sally explains:

When he comes back upstairs he says, ‘Here you go,’ and hands me a box of shells. He even opens the box and pulls one out, ‘You’ll need this,’ he says. So I hold the rifle in one hand and the shell in the other. I don’t know what to do next so Roger holds out his hands palms upwards like this, and says, real sarcastic, ‘You want me to load it?’ So I say, ‘Sure,’ and he grabs the rifle, slides the cartridge into the chamber, slams the chamber shut with the bolt and hands it back to me. ‘There you go!’ he shouts. And then he staggers back to about eight paces away, like before. It takes me a couple of seconds to consider my move; should I or shouldn’t I, but I raise the gun up to my shoulder and point it straight at him. Then I pull the trigger. But nothing happens. Then he yells, ‘You stupid bitch! The safety is on!’ So he rushes over to me, grabs the rifle, flicks off the safety and back he goes, eight paces away and yells, real loud, ‘Go ahead and shoot me!’

So this time she did! The rifle boomed and the recoil sent Sally staggering backwards a few steps, where she tripped over a chair and fell to the floor. The gun had jumped from her hands and skidded to a halt under a table. The bullet hit Roger in the left shoulder, passed through his body causing a flesh wound and slammed right on through the wall of the living room.

Both Sally and Roger were stunned. Roger moaned due to the searing pain of his wound, and he grasped his shoulder. Blood slowly oozed between his fingers and he unsteadily sank to his knees, then toppled over onto his side. Sally started to sob uncontrollably.