Police Shoot Elderly Armed Man Who Allegedly Killed His Wife

An 86-year-old Westchester man who killed his wife Tuesday because she was hitting him with her cane was shot and injured by police when he refused to surrender his gun, police said.

The shooting occurred about 6:30 p.m. in front of several residents in the neighborhood skirting Loyola Marymount University. Police were responding to a call about gunfire in the 8300 block of Westlawn Avenue when a man called police to say that he had just shot his 81-year-old wife twice because she was swatting him.

When arriving officers ordered the man to come out of the house, he walked out with both arms raised and a .22-caliber semiautomatic in his hand, police Lt. Horace Frank said. Officers demanded at least 10 times that he drop the gun, but he lowered it at the officers, who fired, Frank said.

“It’s a very unfortunate incident,” he said. “The officers did everything they could.”

Neighbor Robert Arlt said he was gardening in his backyard when he “heard a voice holler, ‘Put the gun down’ two or three times.” Arlt said he went to the front of his house and saw an officer crouched behind the front wheel of a police cruiser, pointing a pistol across the hood.

“I saw a figure walk out in a sport shirt hanging over his trousers, kind of casual, and suddenly I heard a ‘pop pop’ and the old man fell,” Arlt said.

Arlt said a neighbor who is a paramedic dashed to the scene when he saw the man collapse. “He said, ‘Oh my god, that’s an old man,’ and just started running to him.”

Inside the house, police found an elderly woman collapsed in the bedroom. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Her husband was listed in critical condition late Tuesday night, police said.

The names of the couple were withheld pending notification of relatives.