Chicken shot
Cheshire, OR (US)Incident Date: Monday, Sep 4, 2006
County: Lane
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: Stanley Edward Gray
A woman was charged for shooting her husband in the back after he shot her pet chicken, the Lane County Sheriff's Office said.
Mary Kay Gray, 58, was arraigned Sept 5 in Lane County Circuit Court on a charge of felony assault. She was being held in the Lane County Jail.
Her husband, Stanley Edward Gray, 43, was recovering from a single gunshot wound to the shoulder. The chicken died at the scene.
Sheriff's Sgt. Clint Riley said the couple had been drinking for much of the day on Sept 4 while they did yardwork and other chores around their rented home at 22732 Highway 36 in Cheshire.
They began arguing after Stanley Gray shot the chicken with a .44-caliber handgun, Riley said.
"We don't know if it was an accident or if it was on purpose," Riley said of the chicken's death. "It depends who you ask."
Deputies determined that Mary Gray intentionally shot her husband in the upper back with a .22-caliber rifle around 7:40 p.m., he said. It appeared to be an act of retaliation.
Cheyenne Dickenson's family shares a driveway with the Gray home. She said the Grays moved in about a month ago. They live alone and often appear intoxicated, she said.
Dickenson arrived home Monday night and found police cars clustered at the bottom of the driveway. Deputies escorted her to her front door.
"It looked like `CSI,' " she said, referring to the popular television show. "There were dead chickens lying all over the place."
Dickenson's parents told her they heard the gunfire but thought nothing of it. People often do target practice in the area, she said.
After the shooting, Stanley Gray went to a different neighbor's house for help. The neighbor drove him to the nearby Lane Rural Fire/Rescue station.
Firefighters provided medical treatment until an ambulance arrived to take Gray to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene. He was treated and released from the hospital a few hours later.
The couple's daughter retrieved the remaining animals from the house about midnight, Dickenson said. References« OR State Animal Cruelty Map
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