Cop shoots 83-year-old woman who thought she was fleeing robbers

WDBJ7
Sep. 24, 2012

ALTAVISTA, Va.— Family members tell WDBJ7 that Delma Towler called police because she thought someone was breaking into her home on 10th Street.

Relatives say the 83-year-old was wandering behind her house. WDBJ7 has learned Delma may have fired a gunshot through her back door.

She then left her house and tried to walk through her backyard to the home of her sister who, lives two doors away.

Delma got all the way to her sister's back porch and that's when family members say she was shot by a police officer.

"I heard something this morning on the news that something happened in Altavista," Carl Barbour, the victim's grandson said. "But I never thought it would be my grandmother. I mean, I thought it would be something to do with a drug-related problem, or something in that nature. Then I get called when I'm at work that it's my grandmother. And I'm like 'What?' Because I can't believe it."

Delma died before she was taken to the hospital. We're told that paramedics arrived at the scene quickly and tried to revive her, but they were not able to save her.

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