Texas cop shoots, kills 93-year-old woman outside her home

A Texas police officer is under investigation for shooting and killing a 93-year-old woman outside her home Tuesday evening, officials said.

“No matter what happened, it was a tragic situation,” Robertson County Dist. Atty. Coty Siegert told the Los Angeles Times.

Police in Hearne, a community of 4,444 about 90 miles northeast of Austin, said the trouble began with a 911 call saying there was a disturbance with a woman with a gun.

Two officers responded to the home of 93-year-old Pearlie Golden, Siegert told The Times.

Officer Stephen Stem asked Golden to “put down the weapon and then ultimately fir[ed] his own sidearm, wounding Miss Golden,” the Robertson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement distributed to local media.

Golden was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan.

Siegert said about four shots had been fired, and he hadn’t seen evidence that Golden had fired any of them. But he cautioned that the investigation was ongoing.

Siegert said an autopsy had been completed on Golden on Wednesday morning but he hadn’t seen the results, so he couldn’t say how many times she had been shot.

The Hearne Police Department, in a brief statement provided to The Times, said Stem had been placed on paid administrative leave while the Texas Rangers investigate the incident.

Siegert said that once the investigation was complete, the case would be presented to a grand jury to decide whether Stem should face charges.

The Texas Rangers did not return a message seeking comment.