Woman shoots, misses dog, hits owner...

Cubslover · November 23, 2007 23:46

What a dumbass. First off, why would anyone just take a pot shot at a dog? Even if it is getting aggressive(which it wasn't), especially if the owner is running to catch it. Apparently this is someone who is not responsible enough to possess and own a firearm. One of the ten rules right? Know what is in front of and behind your target.

Authorities believe the bullet that killed a 29-year-old Evansville woman outside a Wadesville, Ind., home Thursday took a bizarre ricochet before striking her.

Posey County Prosecutor Jodi Uebelhack said it appears the bullet hit the ground, bounced up and traveled underneath a plastic fence before fatally wounding Nicole Stroud.

Stroud was pronounced dead at Deaconess Hospital early Thursday evening. An autopsy Friday revealed the bullet, fired from a .357-caliber Magnum, struck her in the right shoulder and pierced both lungs and her heart, Vanderburgh County Coroner Don Erk said.

The woman who is accused of firing the gun, 41-year-old Melinda Lindauer, is being held at the Posey County Jail on preliminary charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide.

Uebelhack said she believes Lindauer fired from a back window of her house, at 4727 Aubrey Lane, at a dog that was loose from the house just beyond a fence to the east, where Stroud was visiting her grandmother.

The coroner said Stroud, who was employed by Toyota, was reportedly leaning down trying to coax the dog, a Shih Tzu, out of Lindauer's yard through a hole at the bottom of the fence when the bullet struck her.

Uebelhack said a statement given to police by Lindauer's husband, Lonnie Lindauer, suggested there was an ongoing dispute between the two neighbors over the dog. She said he told authorities the dog had previously dug up a cat that was buried in the Lindauers' backyard.

But even with that apparent motivation and with the ballistics evidence preliminarily suggesting Melinda Lindauer had no intention of hitting a person, Uebelhack said the criminal charges are still warranted.

Firing the gun at all was illegal, she said, because according to Indiana law, you can only fire a gun at a dog if it is threatening an individual or livestock.

"After we got the statements, it was pretty clear this was a criminal act," she said. "It's never an accident to pick up a gun and shoot it. Now, did she intend to kill a person on the other side of fence that she probably couldn't even see? I don't think so."

Along Aubrey Lane, the short stretch of road south of Indiana 66 and Indiana 165 that runs near both houses, some neighbors said a dispute between the Lindauers and their neighbors to the east had been apparent for some time.

Without warning

But nothing, they said, forewarned of an incident as tragic as the one that occurred.

Mel Wildeman, who lives just down the road from where the shooting happened, said his stepson was at the Lindauers' house months ago when a dispute between them and the same neighbors erupted. He said it ended with one of the Lindauers brandishing, but not firing, a handgun.

"It's just a terrible thing," Wildeman said of the incident Thursday. "It never should have happened."

Another neighbor, who declined to be identified, said he had heard gunshots coming from the Lindauer residence several times over the past few months.

Maria Strauss, who lives directly across Aubrey Lane from the Lindauers, said there had been rumors about problems before and that not very many of the residents knew them that well.

"Most people don't mix with them at all," she said.

Deep dispute

Strauss couldn't believe the dispute was purely over a dog, she said, because numerous dogs - including one belonging to the Lindauers - roam through the neighborhood at times.

"I can't imagine shooting someone over a dog," Strauss said. "Dogs come through here all the time. Their dog comes through here all the time."

No one answered the door at the Lindauer residence Friday afternoon. Melinda Lindauer remained in the Posey County Jail on Friday on a $10,000 cash bond. Her husband, who was briefly detained for questioning Thursday night, is not facing any charges in the incident.

Melinda Lindauer's attorney, Nick Hermann, said he could not comment on the specifics of the case, but said that the Lindauers are distraught over what happened.

"Their thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the lady who died in this incident," he said.

Neither Lindauer has a criminal record in Posey County, Uebelhack said. Police were called to their home in December 2006 for a domestic dispute, she said, but it was only verbal, and no charges were filed.

Some of Stroud's family members were gathering at her grandmother's home in Wadesville on Friday. They said it was too soon to talk about their loss.

Woman shoots, misses dog, hits owner...

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