Two Men Shot, Killed After Tavern Argument

Tue., Jan. 21, 1997

Associated Press

An argument that escalated into the shooting deaths of two assistant football coaches began about a half hour before closing at The Hydrant tavern.

The bartender says that two of the people involved in the dispute had left and she felt it was safe for the other two men to leave.

“I don’t know what started the argument, but I didn’t think it was an explosive situation. I didn’t get any feelings of alarm,” the bartender, Janell Zollman, said.

But just as the tavern was closing about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, she heard the gunfire and found the bodies of Kevin Miller and Edward Nobles, shot to death on the sidewalk in this small northeastern Oregon town.

Miller and Nobles were on one side of the dispute. Ron Edgemon and another man Zollman knew only as “Robert” were on the other, she said.

Zollman said she got into the middle of the argument.

“I was pushing Kevin away and Ron swung and hit me in the head,” she said.

She said she persuaded Edgemon and his companion to leave.

“Ten minutes later, I sent someone outside to see if they were gone and they were,” Zollman said. “I looked outside and didn’t see anyone, so I let Kevin and Eddie go out.

“The next thing I knew, there was gunfire. I went outside and there were two bodies lying close together on Main Street.”

She looked up and saw Edgemon drive away in his pickup truck.

“He was as calm as he could be,” Zollman said.

A short time later, police arrested Edgemon, 27. He was being held without bail Monday on two counts of murder.

Zollman said she had met Edgemon on Wednesday and knew he had worked at Valley Bronze, a fine arts foundry, for two years. He had three young children, she said, and had just learned that his wife was divorcing him.

Miller also had worked at Valley Bronze before being laid off around Christmas. Nobles worked for the Wallowa County road department. Both victims also worked part time as assistant football coaches at Enterprise High School.

Miller, 28, was the son of two retired Enterprise school teachers. He and his wife have three children. Nobles, 31, was single. His parents operate a ranch near Enterprise.

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