Dead 87-year-old armed with pellet gun

Tue., July 13, 2010

PORTLAND – An 87-year-old woman who died after she was stunned in a confrontation with deputies was armed with a pellet gun, not a real handgun, according to a Clackamas County, Ore., sheriff’s spokesman.

Deputies responded to a call last Thursday of a woman reportedly threatening a man working on a water line at the Boring, Ore., mobile home park where she lived. Phyllis Owens briefly set the gun down but picked it up again as deputies approached, the Sheriff’s Office said. That’s when Deputy Steve Shelly used a stun gun.

Sheriff’s Lt. Paul Steigleder II said Monday that the deputies and other witnesses thought the pellet gun was a “fully functioning firearm.” Owens died about an hour after she was shocked. An autopsy determined heart disease was the cause of death.

The county’s major crimes team is investigating.

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Dead 87-year-old armed with pellet gun

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