Several concepts rolled into one - guns, local LEO thugs, Texas, a geezer goober GOPer, Rick Perry's cousin....
It is a story worthy of a Wal-Mart book rack discount counter, it is so emblematic of all that is wrong in Real 'Murka.
And before the likely suspects among people here start clutching pearls and getting the vapors over my horrid, sobworthy, rage-inducing title, please check Perry's reaction.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
A cousin of Texas Gov. Rick Perry was shot and killed over the weekend in his backyard during an exchange of gunfire with sheriff's deputies, officials said Thursday.
Perry said Thursday that the death was tragic but stressed he hardly knew his cousin, 74-year-old Larry Don Wheeler, even though he was listed as a member of Perry's 2006 re-election steering committee.
...
Wheeler was sitting on his backyard deck after dinner Saturday night at his home at a Montague County country club when two sheriff's deputies showed up in response to a disturbance call, said David Gossom, an attorney for the family.
"We received a call ... of a man with a shotgun," Montague County Sheriff Paul Cunningham said. "Several citizens in the area were concerned."
Wheeler's backyard is near a golf course. Montague County is about 90 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
What happened next is unclear and under investigation. After an exchange of gunfire, Wheeler was dead and a deputy was shot in the hand. Gossom said bullet holes riddled the back seat cushion of the chair where Wheeler was sitting and the floor of his deck.
...
Wheeler's wife, Jo Wheeler, was just inside the door and did not know the deputies were present, Gossom said.
"She'd been sitting out there with him for a while and had gone in the house," Gossom said. "All she knows is she'd been talking to her husband, they had dinner, he'd gone outside to sit for a while, and the next thing she hears is boom boom boom and he was shot."
...
Given Governor Goodhair's decisions to date on reining in the abuses and crimes of his g-sters with badges, I can't say as I'm surprised that his continued enabling of blue gang murders would extend to those committed against distant family members. Appearances must be maintained, y'know.