By HARVEY RICE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Nov. 24, 2009, 9:37PM
GALVESTON — A Tiki Island man burdened by financial problems, including the impending loss of his home, shot his wife to death and confronted police with a pistol in hopes that they would kill him, a Galveston County sheriff's officer said Tuesday.
Police officers talked Fred Leonard Wallace, 66, into giving up his firearm, then arrested him in the slaying of his wife, Joann Jones Wallace, 64, sheriff's Lt. Tommy Hansen said.
Wallace, who owns a Houston scrap yard with his son, had suffered business setbacks, and his wife was in poor health, Hansen said. They both suffered from depression and were about to lose their home, he said.
“Apparently a lot of things in their world were upside down,” Hansen said.
Wallace dialed 911 at about 3 a.m. and told the dispatcher that he had shot his wife, Hansen said. A Tiki Island officer and a Bayou Vista officer arrived and found Wallace standing in the driveway with a gun in his hand. Hansen said it was clear from Wallace's later statements that he wanted to provoke the officers into shooting him. Instead, they cajoled him into turning over his weapon.
“A situation that turned terrible could have gone worse,” Hansen said. “They kept it from happening.”
Wallace is being held in the Galveston County Jail on a murder charge. His bail is $75,000.
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