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Butler County, Kansas

Augusta Man Dies In Tragedy

Couple had history of domestic violence

Years of domestic violence led to a tragedy that left an Augusta man dead and his wife hospitalized with a bullet wound to the head late Friday afternoon, Augusta police said Saturday.

"It was one of those situations, sadly all too typical of what I've seen in 26 years of police work," said Augusta Police Chief Steve Shaffer. He said Richard and Mary Wheeler, who had divorced, remarried and recently separated again, had a long history of domestic abuse complaints.

"This is a human tragedy for the folks left behind," Shaffer said. "It hits a town like Augusta pretty hard, especially happening right there in the business district."

Richard Wheeler, 35, died shortly after midnight Saturday at HCA Wesley Medical Center, hours after he shot his wife and turned the gun on himself. His wife, Mary Wheeler, 36, was in stable condition Saturday.

Mary Wheeler had driven to her husband's apartment in downtown Augusta with a friend, Revelie Hoshaw and Hoshaw's two children, ages 2 and 9. Mary Wheeler had wanted to pick up her children, ages 7 and 10, who had been visiting their father, said Hoshaw, who witnessed the shooting.

Hoshaw and Richard Wheeler came out of his apartment and walked up to the car and was arguing with his wife when he reached inside the car, grabbed her by the head, pointed a pistol at the back of her head and pulled the trigger.

Hoshaw said Mary Wheeler fell back into the seat and she jumped out of the car with her children and began running toward the Augusta police station. She said she saw Wheeler stop in the street in front of the apartment and turn the gun on himself.

"He was running from the car and pointing the gun to the side of his head," she said. "I heard the gun click, but there wasn't a bullet in the chamber. The second time....he just dropped to the ground."

Mary Wheeler works at Boeing Wichita, said Hoshaw, who described himself as a friend and a neighbor. The Wheelers had been separated for about four months, Hoshaw said.

Richard Wheeler, who worked at Augusta IGA, kept his two children every other weekend and looked after them after school until his wife picked them up after work, Hoshaw said.

Mary Wheeler had asked her to ride with her to pick up the children because she thought her friend's presence would deter violence, Hoshaw said. "She thought that if I was there, he wouldn't do anything."

Shaffer said police found evidence in the residences of Richard and Mary Wheeler indicating that he had planned the incident. At Mary Wheeler's home, police found tape of a series of threatening telephone messages from her husband.

"We have tapes from her telephone and evidence gathered when we obtained a search warrant for his apartment," Shaffer said. "This leads us to believe that he planned the shooting."

Shaffer said that Wheeler had apparently tried at more than one place to buy a handgun during the day on Friday and had purchased ammunition from a Wal-Mart store.

"We haven't been able to trace the gun so far," Shaffer said. "We don't know where he got it."

The tragedy was a sad end to a long and frustrating sata for friends and family of the Wheelers and for law enforcement officials.

"I knew them well," Shaffer said. "I'd talked with him, counseled him, threatened to throw the book at him....there were just a lot of encounters."

Shaffer expressed concern, both for the Wheeler children and for the children who witnessed the shooting. He said he had talked with Hoshaw's 9-year-old and was pleased that the child seemed to be handling it well.

"Of course trauma can hit next week, next month, next year," he added.

Understanding of such violence doesn't come easily, Shaffer said. And the death hits pretty hard.

"This is a town of 8,000. We haven't had a homicide since 1979. Arn armed robbery in Augusta is a crime wave. Not that we don't stay busy. We have our share of burglary, larceny and so forth. But we just don't have violent crime. I've got 26 years in police work. I've seen dozens of cases. And still it's hard to fathom."
(The Wichita Eagle ~ 22 March 1992)