By Tad Vezner
tvezner@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 12/12/2009 12:36:35 AM CST
A police officer shot and killed a 62-year-old man at a Stillwater apartment complex, apparently after the man fatally wounded his wife Friday.
Police did not release the names of the couple, but a neighbor identified them as Gerald and Gertrude "Trudy" Propps, resident managers of the Victoria Villa apartment complex at 1451 Greeley St. S.
Police said the wife had called 911 to request that her husband be taken to the hospital. While she was on the phone, shots rang out. Another person immediately got on the line and urged police to rush to the complex.
When a Stillwater police officer arrived at the scene, there was a confrontation with the husband, who was shot and killed.
The wife was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where she died within hours.
A woman believed to be a daughter of either the husband or wife suffered a minor injury but it was unclear how, authorities said.
She was believed to be the person who picked up the phone after the shots were heard.
She was transferred to nearby Lakeview Hospital. Her condition was not available late Friday evening.
The neighbor, Bobby Yates, said he was watching television with his son in his first-floor apartment when he heard a gunshot about 4:30 p.m.
He later saw Gertrude Propps and the daughter, a woman in her 30s who does not live in the apartment, trying to flee Propps' apartment into the common hallway. The two had apparently fled from Gerald Propps, who was still in the apartment.
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"She (Gertrude Propps) was on her back, and her daughter was trying to pull her out," Yates said.
Yates ran up and helped pull the older woman into the hall before slamming the door on the man. Yates said Gerald Propps didn't say a word the entire time.
It looked like Gertrude Propps, conscious and screaming, "had been shot in the back through and through," Yates said.
It also appeared the daughter had been shot in the arm, he said.
Yates said police promptly arrived and entered the apartment. He said he heard police yell for the man to put down his gun before several more shots rang out.
There was evidence that Gerald Propps had a serious physical illness, Yates and police said.
"I know he was on heavy medication for aneurysms and was scheduled for surgery," Yates said.
Kathleen Gavegnano, 79, a 30-year resident of the building, lives across the hall from the couple. She now has three bullet holes in her kitchen wall.
"I'm just angry at him. I'm trying to be forgiving, but it's going to take time," she said of Gerald Propps.
Gavegnano, who knew the couple ever since they arrived at the complex about seven years ago, said Propps had been called earlier that day to go in for surgery, five days early. "He was failing terribly. I think that was the breaking point. He didn't want the surgery." A previous surgery had resulted in a bad infection, Gavegnano said.
"I think that was the breaking point. That's my opinion and a lot of other peoples'. ... I know he was under a lot of stress. It's just sad he had to go out taking other people."
Gavegnano said Propps had previously been a sheriff in Kentucky and possessed multiple firearms. She said the couple married about seven years ago, the second marriage for both.
"Messed up my nice clean kitchen. I'm angry at him for that, too. Oh, what a mess he made, of everybody," Gavegnano said.
The officer who shot Propps was not immediately identified. A 15-year veteran of the force, the officer was placed on standard administrative leave while an investigation takes place.
Stillwater police Sgt. Jeff Stender said the daughter is not a suspect in the incident. Stillwater police and the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are investigating the shooting.
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