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| Delma Towler |
September 25, 2012 5:40 PM ET
83 year old Delma Towler called 911 from her Altavista, Virginia home on Wednesday September 19, 2012 and hung up.
Within minutes, Altavista police officers arrived at her house.
Within a few more minutes, they shot and killed her.
Police claim that as they were approaching the house, they heard several gunshots inside.
As the officers took cover, they saw an elderly woman, Towler, leave through a back door with a gun in her hand.
Police say they approached Towler and repeatedly commanded her to put the gun down, but she refused.
According to police, Towler then turned and pointed the gun at officers, and they shot her dead.
Virginia State police said Altavista police officers went to check on Towler after the 911 hang up call.
"She's had intruders around there before," said Robert Towler, the 83 year old's son.
Towler said his mother thought someone was trying to break in and must have fired the shots to scare them away.
"She heard some noise and she thought it was somebody out there trying to break in and she shot two or three bullets," said Barbour.
"Mom ain't gonna hurt no police officer or nobody else," said Barbour, "She was a good christian woman and she wouldn't hurt a soul."
Barbour says his mother was walking to her sister's house two doors up.
"My aunt was holding the door open for her to come in and my aunt said she heard three shots like bang, bang, bang and she went down," said Barbour.
Towler died at the scene.
Police have not released the name of the officer but said he is a 10 year veteran of the Altavista, Virginia Police department.
Virginia State police are investigating.
I will be updating this post.
